Unraveling
by annat08
Summary: Rey is losing control and knows of only one person who can help her. Kylo Ren has his hands full and sets conditions he is sure will drive her back to whatever Resistance hole she's been hiding in. When it doesn't he exploits the opportunity. TLJ spoilers. Dark smut.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 HELP

This connection felt different than those times that spontaneously erupted between himself and Rey. Very quickly he realized she was consciously contacting him through the force. They had not spoken since the throne room. Just a few brief episodes had happened and he'd pointedly ignored her refusing to recognize her presence. Her reach this time was opened with a direct plea.

"I offered you to come with me and you refused. There is no reason to further communicate," he cuts her off. She's been about to remind him of half-hopes and a future she claims to know. He doesn't believe her.

Rey swallows her pride and reaches for him. She has spent four months unable to control the powers that are now awake in her. They are dangerous and getting more and more out of control. Her emotions are triggering destructive reactions that have made her stay planet-bound, now. She's afraid her uncontrolled energies will damage a ship. She's hurt people. Her anger erupts almost instantaneously into flashes of shattering power against those who upset her. She is appalled and has separated herself from her friends. She has tried meditating, but it isn't working. Things are getting steadily worse.

"I need help," she says softly. Carefully simple because he'll strip bare any attempt to lie.

"Help with what, Rey? You think you understand all of the universe, me. You cannot…"

"I've hurt people I didn't mean to," she confesses.

He thinks she's referring to him, then quickly realizes what she's saying. He understands. He was sent away to train when he began causing accidents and destruction.

"You could have ruled by my side, but you were too good for that. I won't pretend that option is still open." He speaks coldly. "As I told you at the start. You need a teacher."

"I do," she concedes. Skywalker is dead. The books are remote and unhelpful.

"Do you know what it means to be an apprentice?" He doesn't relieve the chill.

She doesn't at all and he gives her the basic framework. "You kneel and swear an oath to give me your complete obedience. You are clay to be molded. I will control your body and mind as I show you how to control the power of the force. You withhold nothing. You may not question."

"I cannot ask questions?" she takes it literally and he shakes his head in frustration. He is trying to drive her away. He is surprised the connection has not broken from his description and his disdain.

"You cannot question my commands. I will act and there will be times you do not understand why. You will carry the commands out without discussion or complaint."

"What if you are mistaken?" she cannot relent. It is her nature. He's a fool for even framing conditions.

"Your choices are so limited, Rey, that you have no other options. My methods will be difficult and harsh. You are warned."

"Will it mean I turn dark?" she asks.

"That is how I use the force. Your efforts will be based on the emotions that fuel your actions. I have no idea if you'll turn, Luke taught me and I still turned. You might stay light, but I make no promises."

She hasn't withdrawn despite his conditions. He seeks to push her further. "I mean it when I tell you I will take full control of your body and mind. It won't be passive lessons floating rocks and hours of meditation. You will hate what I do and make you do in return."

He doesn't push those images at her because her imagination ought to outstrip his intentions. She is crying openly, if silently, now. She's done something that truly terrified her. So much so that even his black offer hasn't severed the contact.

"You know where I am, or your rebel friends can tell you. Come here if you mean it. But be careful as you approach. Ship security will probably blast your vessel out of the sky."

"I can't," she tells him. She releases a vision of her last disastrous ship voyage.

"Poor, poor. Scavenger," he mockingly sooths. He can't see exactly, but around her things are shattering. From her, he knows the walls and ceiling are violently shaking.

He reconsiders. She'll kill herself in this state.

"Tell me where you are," he demands. "I'll ensure you don't destroy the city before I collect you."

The more things crumble around her the less control she has and her fear is now increasing the destruction. She tells him the planet and he sends her under. She collapses in a heap and is knocked down until he comes to her. The imposition locked until he releases. Sleeping beauty, he designates in possibly the kindest thought he's had since she invoked their contact.

He's a fool to do this. He can send troops to collect her, but he commands his ship be made ready. He isn't entirely sure what he'll do next.

The planet is a small outpost it has only 3 city sized communities. His senses guide him to one, unerringly locating the place. He shouldn't be surprised. She would be uncomfortable in a large urban place filled with tall buildings and hardly any sight of the sky. This has a handful of low slung substantial structures and the outer edges of the outpost have the types of pens that allow herds to be brought in for butchering from the open grasslands. Kylo Ren doesn't have to guess where she is. The building is one of the few substantial places and corner of it has sheared away recently into rubble still clogging the street. The windows are all broken and blown out.

His ship proclaims his First Order antecedents. He debates exiting the craft in full regalia. Few know his appearance, but the mask is infamous. If he uses it there will be no doubt who has landed. After weighing the options, he sets the mask aside. Covering his shoulders in a plain black cloak with a hood, he makes his way towards the place. He can feel her shuddered heart slowly beating. Still in the pulse of sleep he has imposed.

Two creatures managing a rough stretcher are carrying her out of the place. They are small, but stocky figures. They think she is injured and are removing her from the place. They do not intend to get her medical assistance. They will return to pillage her room for a valuables. He sends them scurrying. He orders a pair of droids to place her in the ship and goes to her rooms.

Little enough is there. She has never owned much. The books draw his attention and as he picks them up he senses their strengths. As he runs his gloved finger over the spine of one he senses the presence.

"Go away old man," he demands of Luke Skywalker.

"Those do not belong to you," the ghostly image tells him.

"If I leave them here they are lost forever. Rey is in no position to carry them out."

"What are you going to do to her?"

"Teach her the ways of the force, Master Skywalker," he sneers. "Just as I was."

Kylo Ren pushes the phantom out of the room with a hard effort. He takes her bag and shoves the books inside and departs.

A/N Apologies for the slow start. Promise it picks up after this. I needed to get them in the same place at the same time. I am grateful to those who wrote re: my first story posting "Well Tread Territory."


	2. Chapter 2 - Abandon Hope All Who Enter

Chapter 2 - ABANDON HOPE ALL WHO ENTER

Rey is slow coming out of the hard sleep. Her body is sore as if battered. Her mind is fuzzy and she is quickly aware she is not planet-side any longer. This clears the cobwebs away fast as she panics. The controls surrounding the platform bed begin to short out and Ren sighs.

"Calm down, immediately," he barks.

"It's not safe," she tries to tell him and he walks forward and slaps her face to get her attention.

"Don't think about anything but doing as I say, right now. I will break you into pieces if you damage this ship further. I need you to look at me and clear your mind, now."

He has grabbed her shoulders squaring her towards him. He's larger and fills her vision. He blocks out her hearing as more fuses explode and she shudders and closes her eyes and tries to concentrate. His fingers are digging into her and she starts there. She lets him fill her senses. The sting of his slap across her cheek, the way he looms over her. The deceptively soft sound of his voice that still curls into her unmistakably insistent. Things settle, the danger is subsiding.

"Better, but hardly clear," he points out. "No past, no future. This moment only. Think of the emptiness of space."

He guides her to deeper level and as he does the tension in her dissolves. Her muscles go slack and her face relaxes. He grimaces at the red mark across her cheek. She hasn't even completed the oath swearing and he's begun, but the oath is a formality at this point. A gesture and nothing more. She's conceded his demands.

"Keep meditating until I tell you it is time to stop," he instructs and then rises and leaves the room.

Mentally he's still keeping close check on her, but he has to think his way through this now. How is he going to manage running the First Order and a dangerously powerful apprentice. She's wavering and he mentally thumps her the way Skywalker used to do with a staff he carried. A technique handed down from Master Yoda employed when he tutored Luke.

Rey doesn't like it but resumes her concentration. He needs to run her. Physical tiredness will mitigate her emotional outbursts. He's more than capable of exacting this from her. He gives orders to his personal droids and then takes on the most pressing tasks of his commanders. He spins off those demands, allowing them leeway to solve the minor disputes as they see fit. Not a tactic Snoke ever permitted. He savored conflict and using it. He demonstrated his own control and cruelty at every opening. Kylo Ren had less taste for solving all matters with violence.

The baggage had few pieces of clothing and none of it adequate for the cold ship. The First Order kept temperatures chilled to heighten crew members' alertness. He ordered his droid to bring change of clothes for Rey that were simple but warmer.

Her room was attached to his private quarters. She didn't know this, yet, but she would soon enough. He considered the more than two hours she has been meditating and his mind crawls out to her. She's stable, steady.

 _~Clean up.~_ he commands.

He could intrude while she does this, but it will interfere with work he is trying to complete. He's ordered her to stay in the room but she's exploring it and repairing the mechanicals that she exploded earlier. He dispatches a droid that she can request supplies from. It isn't smart enough to convey anything useful and isn't able to do more than fulfill simple requests.

He orders food to be delivered to his quarters. The rumors have already commenced as she arrived. That she's in his private quarters and they are eating together means she is not a prisoner as far as the other staff are concerned. That she is young and female implies motives. He chafes at the judgement even if much of it is correct.

After deciding to wrap up his work files, he cleans up, before opening the door to her quarters. He's signaled her awareness before opening the door and she's ready for him. They have connected often enough to recognize each other's force signatures when in proximity. There is only dim secondary light working in her room after her episode. She didn't prioritize fixing the illumination. She's fixed the communication unit, the heating controls, the water purification, the air filters, he catalogs. She is clean and wearing the clothing he's delivered. The tunic is, too large for her frame, but reasonable.

"I've ordered food," he tells her. "Take a seat." Kylo Ren motions that she should enter his portion of the suite where the food is laid on a table.

Rey has imagined she'll have to be his servant. His own words have given her that impression, but he shakes his head. "You're an apprentice, not a slave. It will seem the same at times, but I won't waste time having you do what the droids manage."

"Kylo…" she starts.

"Master," he corrects. Giving a harsh smirk as he immediately contradicts his just completed statement.

The word sticks in her throat. She is having trouble saying it. There is history there. He's seen part of her past, but the word surfaces a harsh memory. It is vivid, and he is able to pluck it from her mind. She's a small child and she's beaten and forced to thank her oppressor with that words "thank you, Master." Kylo doesn't like the ugly old man who is doing this to her, but this past is nothing and she escaped that life. If he respected her more he might not return that word to her lips.

"I hate that word," she knows what he's plucked from her mind.

"You hate me, too," he dismisses. "Monster, Master, it's the same."

She sits still in the chair and doesn't meet his eyes. The surroundings make her choices hard, but very real. How could she imagine coming to him was what she needed? She feels so lost.

"You are lost," he agrees. "The force has awoken in you and you are unable to control it or yourself. You need me to show you. There is no one else. Our agreement stands?" It is a question with only one answer. He's forcing her to confirm and by doing this also employ the word she would avoid with silence.

"Yes, Master," she sounds bleak as the brittle sound forms.

The droids uncover the food and it is not elaborate by First Order standards, but it is far and above any meal she has taken. Linen cloths, multiple pieces of silverware, cups of water and wine. The food arranged artfully to be both delicious and attractive. She stares at it without knowing how to proceed. He shakes his head and lets her figure out by observing. She's hungry. The rumblings of her stomach have announced it. She's thirsty, too, although she's did drink water while she waited.

"You studied with Luke, briefly?" he seeks some basis for what instruction she's received.

Rey is wary, but he glares at her and she knows she is not permitted to avoid this. "Yes Master," she is better this second time saying the words. "Luke was reluctant when I arrived. He did not wish to teach me, or return to meet with General Organa."

"My mother," he provides seeing her flicker surprise at this. Rey is from a tiny world that wasn't overly involved in politics. She had no idea a princess of the realm joined herself to a pirate/hero of the rebellion. Or how that romance had crumbled. She had not connected them other than to know they were close when saw them together on Illynium.

"Luke only offered three lessons." She pressed onward.

They were nothing like the way he'd instructed the Jedi. His efforts had not been anything concrete. An obtuse observation about the nature of the force, the failure of the order. She'd cracked and broken things there, too. He smiled at the discomfiture she caused his old master. Nothing perilous happened on the island. It awoke her further to her capabilities, but offered her no balance or control.

"Your emotions trigger the unsettled waves of force. You have to manage them."

"While you terrorize me," she accuses and then realizes her gamut is poorly played.

"Yes, Rey." He is fully aware of the dilemma. "Or I will punish you. Pain is an excellent motivator for acquiring control."

Kylo Ren knows this because it was used on him by Snoke. He is keenly aware that light and dark are not above cruelness. She's losing her appetite and he won't coax her. She'll regret not taking nourishment when he works with her in the morning. She has avoided the wine. She is afraid it will compromise her self-control. He is amused at this concern. She's never held her tongue when it was a matter of criticizing him. Her worry is more personal, he plans to exploit that worry.

Nothing around them has so much as trembled from her unleashed fear. She has tight command of herself at this moment. What she's afraid of isn't exactly him. She feels their connection, still. She doesn't believe he'll hurt her heedlessly. It's what is giving her the courage to submit to him. He weighs destroying this sliver of faith she has in him. Burning it down. Then he defers. He can take this apart at any time. He can kill her hope at the time of his choosing. To do it now won't break her.

"Will you kill me if I don't turn?" She asks softly.

"We are destined to continue our fight, Rey." He feels this truth in his bones. "I love fighting you."

His use of the word love surprises her but in context she struggles. "Fighting me?"

"You never hold back. You try to kill me every time we raise swords. It is exhilarating."

She's almost done it, twice. But his blood had sung through his veins the entire time. He'd needed all of his skills as they engaged. A worthy opponent. He will sadly have to make their sparring efforts less lethal, but he looks forward to testing her. He hasn't addressed her original question. He returns to it now.

"I could leave you alone and let nature takes its course. You would be dead within a week at the rate you are deteriorating. I brought you here to teach you. What happens after that is nothing you should bother thinking about."

It was a guess on her part that the imbalance was killing her. His words confirm what she inferred from the way her body and the very walls around her were reacting. She nods at this information. She worries that she hasn't done anything to stop that outcome.

"You're safe for now, apprentice," he reassures lightly.

He gestures to the wine. "Do you like it?"

"It's good," she blandly attempts social grace.

"Why haven't you finished it?" he avoids mentioning the food, but he'll taunt her about the wine for reasons of his own. _With wine, truth_ is an old saying. She finishes and he refills her glass. She looks at him and his eyes confirm the order that hasn't been spoken, yet. He makes her drink four glasses and he's pretty sure that will secure the response he wants.

"It isn't doing anything," she diverts.

"Give it a little time, Scavenger," he knows already it is warming her body.

"Why do you want me intoxicated?" she is skittish about the why but can't control the impulse to ask.

"You'll be honest in a way you haven't so far, scared rabbit," he posits. "You could ask for my help and agree to all manner of subjugation, but I need to know how complete your submission will be. You might reveal more while drunk than even my deepest probe of your mind could uncover."

"Men get women drunk when they want to screw them." She provides her limited frame of reference.

"They sometimes do," he agrees easily. "And we're in my private quarters in the evening hours after a meal. Has it escaped you that I might require that from you?"

She blushes furiously but her mind isn't shocked by his words. She dreads the act but has anticipated it.

"Why isn't the ship shaking apart under your terror, Rey?" he asks.

"Monster," she taunts fiercely.

He smiles outright at her deflection. He stalks forward like she's prey that has frozen before him. He touches her chin lightly and she realizes he has removed his gloves. The long fingers graze feather light against her skin eliciting electric tingles along her nerves.

"You understood when you reached out to me this was a condition of my accepting you. You have already come to terms with the circumstance."

She doesn't deny his words.

"Then I need you to understand this part of it. You do not get to behave as a sullen, unwilling participant. I have no desire to be forced to employ rape as a means of having you."

Her skin goes pale and she looks lost as she searches his face. She isn't off the hook, but she has no idea how to correct the reluctance he is banishing. "I don't know anything about how to gratify you," she stutters. He'd like to be angry about this, but it is completely true.

"I expect you to learn," he relents. "Quickly."

Rey gives a tense nod. "Will you be teaching me that, too?"

Tempting, but he has no interest in deflowering virgins or whatever level of experience she falls into. He lands on an alternative. "For tonight you'll sleep with me. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to Fatina. She is keeper of the Lower Staff's Quarters." It was a crude name used by the male leadership for women maintained aboard ship to provide relief of sexual tensions.

Rey wants to avoid this. She has seen prostitutes _learning_ the art of whoring and it looked rough. Kylo Ren shakes his head inferring she wants a less hands-on process.

"If you could learn by reading then the books in your room should have enlightened you. Instead you needed to come to me."

"I think you have no patience for me to learn by books." The wine has loosened her up and he's amused but she's tilting from fear to insolence in their exchange. "I want those books back."

"They are mine, now," he expects her to disagree, but she's realized he's looking for an argument. She's thought far enough ahead to know there would be consequences for disagreement.

"They are important, Kylo," she tries to change the trajectory. If she knows where they are she can get them back when….

"Did you read them, Rey?" he asks.

He's closely probing her despite his relaxed posture. He does dramatic gestures when he interrogates because it causes tension and startles his subjects, but he doesn't need to. She has poured over these books. Spent hours looking at them. She cannot read them. At first he presumes unfamiliar language and absence of a translator, but on a hunch he goes to his desk, finds a tablet, sets it to something inane and walks back.

"What does this say?" He knows she isn't weak enough to command with this voice, but she feels the push. It is a page of text with no clear document type of designation. She glances at it and frowns. He presses. "You can change it to whatever derelict tongue you prefer by adjusting the setting here," he points to the place that will adjust the setting.

The shining hope of the Resistance looks down at her hands. She can rebuild ships and broken electronics. She speaks a dozen languages. She is a gifted force user. She has never gone to school.

"Are you serious?"

He is appalled and finishes his own glass of wine in a large swallow and pours another.

"Scavenging does not require books," she points out.

"How are you able to repair ships and electronics?"

"I take machines to pieces. I see how they are put together, how they run." She really has gleaned a high degree of skill without formal training.

This irritates Kylo Ren, but he adds this to gaps she must overcome. He will not abide an illiterate apprentice. The idea offends him. She will test his patience at every turn.

"Does being drunk dull the instability?" He asks. The real reason he's done this to her.

"Until the liquor wears off," she tells him.

She's tried to alter her state to cope. He didn't know if it would change things. He doesn't permit himself to over indulge. Snoke would not have stopped him, but the Supreme Leader was capricious and sudden with his demands. His apprentice had to maintain a nimble ability to respond. He could indulge, now, but he's watched men debilitate themselves on drugs and drink. He has no respect for it.

"What triggers the force waves?"

"Fear and anger," she tells him. "Darkness," she reduces.

"The waves are not a manifestation of darkness. I'm sure fear does trip them, since I saw that happen." She's worried he'll ask her to make it happen. He won't because it's like asking her to call down lightening.

"My anger causes things to happen, things break," she is struggling to say the more devastating effect.

She's struck people with powerful force blasts when they upset her. He sees it. She did it to FN-2187. She calls him Finn. She hasn't done it aboard the flagship, but she knows it is a matter of time before she lashes out.

"Control your temper," he demands. "You are in no position to expect anything or find your treatment unfair. The faster you realize this, the sooner you can avoid it happening and the retribution I'll inflict."

"Never get mad?" she asks incredulously. "I'm a person, not a droid. Isn't getting angry a feature of Darkness?"

"I didn't say you couldn't be mad," he mocks her lack of understanding. "I said control your temper. Channel that anger, fear and hate. But that may turn you. After all the light rejects those emotions."

Rey doesn't like this answer. "I don't want to hurt anyone."

This makes Kylo Ren smirk again. "You want to kill me."

"No I don't," she says firmly. It has a ring of truth despite all of the conflicted things they've gone through. "I couldn't join you. You have to understand. I regret the hurt that caused you, but I couldn't. It wasn't the path. It didn't go to the future I saw."

Kylo Ren believes she has sight. The kind that reaches further than just anticipation in combat. He is suspicious of the talent because it defies him. The fragments he's gleaned are insubstantial and hard to understand. The visions are prone to misinterpretation and glaring deficits if history is any guide. More importantly, he'd pleaded with her and she'd turned away. She'd put a stake in his heart.

"If your vision is so clear, did you notice whether you are part of it?" he asks low and angry.

Drunken Rey isn't able to disguise making a show of thinking on this question. She is in no condition to summon her visions. It defies her and he shakes his head. She is takes in the continued anger he feels about the rejection but does not renege.

"You saw my future. You said I joined you," she fumbles. "Is this what you saw?"

"I didn't say you joined me," he reminds. "I said you turned." He'd like to formulate some elaborate interpretation on the tiny insight he gleaned. His was past not future. She might be right that her being here, now with him, is what he predicted. She was aboard the ship. Wearing clothes of the First Order. It was brief. He'd extrapolated. He doesn't want to give her space to score a victory, even a minor one.

He rises from the table and motions the droids to clear the dishes. He begins to undress and take his place in the large comfortable platform. She is slow to follow and hesitant as she approaches. She concedes to his directions and climbs in. He has left her with minimal coverage and enjoys the chance to see the form of her body and the tan features of her skin that are golden. He considers having her bare her breasts. He doesn't. A useless concession to her modesty. He expected to revel in her proximity, but each command raised the awkwardness and heightened the chance she would break.

"Does the connection between us mean anything?"

Snoke claimed he created the bridge but Kylo Ren has been considering the condition. His former master manipulated them. If it had been a manifestation of his own power, there would have been some trace of that. The source is Rey and himself. "It arose out of our encounters. We have unfinished business."

Rey lays next to him but doesn't touch him. Her body language doesn't encourage his hands to reach for her. She expects it, but cannot make herself initiate. Her tired drunken mind is cycling a hundred frustrations. He should be glad she isn't creating those force waves but the inebriation has effectively dulled her capacity. He rolls away from her because he'll stare holes in the back of her head if he doesn't. He needs sleep, too.


	3. Chapter 3 - Petra

Chapter 3 - PETRA

Kylo Ren wakes and realizes he probably shouldn't let her sleep in his bed. She's wanted to kill him. He is vulnerable in sleep. She doesn't realize he is awake and she mentally debating hurting him and fleeing, but talks herself out of it. She is at the farthest edge of the bed. Her profile facing away. The night was not restful for her. The minute he moves, she starts to rise.

"Come along," he orders.

He walks to the other room and takes a seat in the platform in the dimly lit other room. He is preparing to meditate. He crosses his legs and motions to a place on the floor where he wants her to position herself. She does and he gives her short directions and tells her to begin. She struggles to do it properly, but none of the features of the room are reacting poorly to her presence.

He drops into the meditation and ignores her. He vaguely knows she is studying his practice and how it works and how aware he is while released into this state. She is about to touch him when he burns the hand that extended to touch him. She jolts from the sharp pain.

"Meditate unless you prefer more punishment."

She cradles her hand, but does better dipping into the state she needs. She stays that way until he tells her to stop, which is after he's risen and gotten changed. He's pleased she didn't presume her release.

"Dress for a physical workout," he tells her. "We'll do this every morning before cleaning up and having breakfast."

He has left the door open to her room as he moves about She obeys the direction with some squeamishness about shielding herself from his sight. He lets her because this isn't the moment for asserting his other impulses. When she is dressed he stops her.

"The chances of you being recognized are very low, but I recommend you change your hair and find another way to identify yourself. Others of the First Order will not suffer a rebel in our midst."

"You are Supreme Leader," she points out. "None of them will question your commands."

"I'm not in the mood. You'll be Petra as far as other people are concerned."

"Petra?" she wants to complain about the name but his dark glare stops her.

"Give that designation to anyone who asks. Nothing else."

She nods and he knows it is to avoid using the word Master, but immediately the question bubbles up. "Do I still call you Master in the presence of others?"

"Yes," he tells her. "In fact, I'll be greatly displeased if you slip to any other address or failure of courtesy."

"Won't it…." She is tripping over the context.

"I've taken an apprentice. They are familiar enough with Dark Lords having such. It is so common they will not even blink to wonder how I found you."

He walks her to a central gymnasium where there is assorted equipment for sustaining physical fitness. Few enough are there at this early hour, but he takes note of who is diligent right before he dismisses them and clears the space. He points to a large cylinder that is used for running. It doesn't have any features, but it is endless and they can do this side-by-side. He's curious what her capacity is. He sets an easy start and she wobbles a bit as she gets accustomed to machine. When she is finally moving easily beside him he picks up the pace. She sinks into a steady rhythm beside him and although she has never done this, her ability to cover distance before the effort begins to strain her is a good sign. He takes it to the point where she begins faltering then allows her to cool down.

There are a few other drills he starts her on. His own efforts go longer than her in each case and he has her recover while he finishes. She has never had to use a room like this for physical training. She has always acquired her abilities from actual efforts. Under blue skies. She finds it strange. She appreciates his physique in her poorly hidden moment of admiration.

"You are constantly probing my thoughts?" she asks belatedly adding "Master."

"Yes," he tells her. Not exactly true, but often enough for what she means. He expects her to plead for privacy. She doesn't bother. He is ready to shoot that down and she has maybe previewed how unsuccessful the request will be.

"Why did you pick that name?" she asks.

"I can shorten it to Pet," he tells her obliquely. She frowns at the statement.

At the completion, they go back to his quarters. He orders her to strip and join him in the shower so she can assist. Her color goes pale. She moves so slowly, as if hoping he'll lose patience and finish before she can step into the chamber. He weighs saying something that will lessen her distress, but gives up that idea quickly.

He's pushing his agenda. She will not recognize concessions. He has her use a cloth to rub the soap across his wet body. At no time does she meet his eyes while she is doing the required action. Her own nakedness covers in prickles of gooseflesh as she is damp and chilled until the steam fills confined place. He relishes the way her nipples react, but controls the impulse to reach for her. He isn't ready to assert more, yet. If he starts, his day will be upended by the desire to spend hours working over her body. He has work that he cannot defer, and savors this small start. When he does pursue complete physical connection he wants time for it to unfold.

He orders her to clean herself as he lets her step beneath the stream of hot water. He watches even as he knows this unnerves her. His cock has been erect since he gave her the order to join him. He isn't shy about the desire it conveys. He steps out and tells her to go get dressed when he's at the tipping point of tossing his restraint. He lets her leave before relieving his erection. When she comes back she is in her own clothes. She's feeling shy walking into his room.

"Will you call me Petra in private, too?" she asks. She may recognize his plan to remake her.

"I'm going to place a collar on you to reinforce the sentiment," he darkly informs and she does not believe he is kidding.

A droid has brought Kylo Ren his morning meal. He regrets he did not remember to change the order, and sends the droid for a second meal. His manners dictate he wait before they take a seat. He begins to bring up morning communications on a screen at his desk so he can sort some priorities. He opens begins to populate things on his calendar based on the inquiries he is receiving. He swears as he reads one message and immediately opens a com link to his officer who sent it. There is a terse exchange and then he conveys his directions.

Rey is trying to run a brush through her tangled hair. It is longer than he expected. He finds the simple task unexpectedly revealing and intimate. She quickly braids it in a single plait down her back while he attends his work. The style is austere but keeps it out of the way. She won't approach the table where the food is, she assumes she is to stay hungry.

"I won't withhold food during your apprenticeship." He corrects her. "I expect you to be in good physical condition and for that you will need to eat regularly. You will share meals with me unless I send you word that I am unavailable."

She nods and as if on cue the droid triggers the door open and brings the second plate. He sits and motions for her to take a place. She drinks the water quickly and examines the other items on the plate. She doesn't know what it is but at least she's clever enough to follow his lead as she picks up a fork and tries some. Kylo Ren quietly observes, but is amused that she is tentatively tasting the items and her reactions are open.

"Do you want to know what the dishes are?" he finally asks as she drinks the refilled water glass.

"Maybe," she looks at him and wonders if this is a trick. Some kind of dark side practice of….

"You've had eggs before, haven't you?" he asks.

She shakes her head. He identifies some fruits and a porridge with nuts and cinnamon. She shakes her head further. He sees that her food has been a steady consistency of rations. A few odd moments of fermented drinks, like the wine last night that she is suspicious of. Even with the rebels she chose rations as familiar fare. He sighs.

"Sad," he determines. "You will eat better if nothing else."

"Cleaner water, too," she mentions. "Filtered, purified."

He cringes at the thought of her previous water sources and tolerance. "Yes. The water has fewer impurities, too."

He looks at his schedule and blocks out two places. "I am taking you to meet Fatina. You are to pay attention to her instructions. I will hear if you are uncooperative. A droid will collect you at 12th hour. It will provide you introduction in literacy. You follow the droid's lessons until the 15th hour. Then you return to the gym. We'll continue your work. Is this understood?"

"Yes," she tries to avoid the hated word, and he freezes her until she finishes. "Master."

"If you begin to lose control you stop and return here to the room and initiate the meditation I showed you yesterday. Do not interrupt me unless you are failing and endangering the ship."

She nods. She is out of her depth but she can follow his simple directions.

"What is your name?" he asks and senses the first inroads to dismantling her identity are beginning.

"Petra," she tells him.

He briefly opens to her. _~Rey, the name is to keep you safe. To help you become what you need while you are here.~_

Kylo Ren leads her through the dark hallways to the mistress of the Lower Staff Quarters. The door is plain enough but once it opens they move into a lounge room that is markedly different than all of the other spaces on the ship. The colors are lighter, brighter, the edges are softer, the lighting is soft but sufficient to cut the gloom. When the new entrance is noted the mistress of the quarters sweeps forward. She is tall, elegant, meticulously beautiful.

One lone officer is seated on a low couch when they step inside, but he blushes and scurries away.

Fatina gives an elegant bow to the Supreme Commander as she greets him. She examines the young apprentice, Petra, and does not question that she may be a force user and a concubine to serve his needs. She welcomes Rey with grace and warmth that is practiced. The mistress is keen to please the leadership of the vessel and the Supreme Leader has made no use of the services. He conveys his wishes and departs. The mistress serves her tea.

"Petra, it is very good to meet you."

"Mistress Fatina," she accepts the tea.

"You understand the services my area provides?"

"He told me," Rey's voice is getting smaller.

"Does the Supreme Leader want your virginity?" The question is very blunt.

Rey blushes furiously. "That's none of your business." She doesn't think the woman should know.

"You shouldn't be a novice at your age. To be such is to say your experience is small. I find women who guard it are often virgins from places that value purity. Is that the type of world you came from?"

"No," she sharply answers. "I just…"

Fatina presses. "It's my job to know and tell you how to use what you have to please a man. If you are dishonest it will be disappointing for everyone. You do not want him disappointed, do you?"

The mistress is shrewd enough to speak as if she expects enthusiastic participation, but not actually assume it from this new girl. Rey is tongue tied.

"Fine," she finally relents. "You're right." Not really, but Rey's history isn't enough.

"Of course you are. If I'd known I could have provided the Supreme Leader with suitable companions much sooner."

"I'm not sure he considers it a highlight of our coming evening together." Rey recommends. She is in horror at the idea that the mistress will be collecting innocent girls for future service to Kylo.

"Really?" Fatina tries to gauge if Rey is being truthful. She finally relents. "He has taken you as an apprentice. You will be with him for a while?"

"Yes," Rey doesn't know how long, but no use imagining a short time period.

"Are you fertile?" She asks brusquely.

"Probably," Rey has no reason to assume otherwise.

"Is conceiving a child a goal of your encounters?"

"No," Rey says forcefully.

"I'll provide you with treatment so you avoid that condition. If he requests it, we will reverse the treatment."

Rey resents that his wishes will trump her own. "He wants you to advise me so that I am prepared for the evening. He finds my inexperience tiresome."

"Did you first come to his service last night?"

Rey nods, mortified to have to explain how they slept together without consummating anything. Fatina asks very specific questions about his actions and his body. She nods when Rey stutters and runs out of words.

"Hmm. He may be embarrassed by your lack of knowledge. Is it truly lack of knowledge and initiative. Or are you scared? It will speed up our time together if you respond honestly."

The stuttering inability to characterize and encapsulate her grasp of human sexual interaction is stopped before it can go very far. "Never mind. You are a blank slate. Saints preserve us. You are lucky the Supreme Leader has enough patience to see to your improvement. Most men would have sent you away or battered some poor version of experience into your reluctant body. No one would have been satisfied."

"You can show me what he requires?"

"I will try, Petra, but there is a second thing to keep in mind. He wants you to please him, but if you find ways for him to please you, the bond will be stronger. A man takes pride when the woman he's with is fulfilled."

"What does that mean?"

Fatina looks at her skeptically. Then shaking her head she sighs. "There are rooms in my quarters that men borrow when they are with women. I have ways of observing what goes on in those rooms. I suspect we should make use of those. I warn you to stay quiet. You may not speak to anyone of what you see."

"The Supreme Leader can take my thoughts unbidden from my mind."

Fatina purses her lips. "I didn't think that was true. All right, we'll leave the patrons alone, unless they volunteer. I'll have you watch recordings that teach you techniques."

So the woman sets Rey in a place where she is provided tea and recordings to view. They feature bawdy women enthusiastically braiding men to come and use their private parts for fun. The sex is noisy, full of different kinds of touching and kissing and fluids. She isn't sure this seems like a good idea, none of it is persuasive of the actions being fun. All the same, there is a restless reaction within her as she considers these actions with Kylo Ren. When Fatina comes to bring her a light lunch they talk about it and the mistress sighs and shakes her head.

"You are too much of a novice. Has he kissed you?"

"No," Rey acknowledges.

"Has he seen your naked body?" She asks for more practical basis of her recommendations.

"Yes." Rey considers stopping with yes, but realizes the mistress will formulate her recommendations based on what Rey knows. "We showered this morning after exercising."

"Did he ask you to tend to him in the shower?"

"I washed his body," she knows his reaction to her touch wanted a different outcome.

"How did you handle his penis?" After a few minutes of evasion the woman goes to a cabinet and comes back with a palm sized replica.

"This is a device we use in different ways, but for you, let's consider it a model so you can become accustomed to what the Supreme Leader is expecting."

"He didn't ask for anything other than I clean his body."

"But he brought you here, so he needs you schooled in giving pleasure."

The mistress is right. Rey takes the item and finds it cool and pliable but still firm. It has shape and dimensions that are not his precisely, but she doesn't remark on discrepancies. The lady gives her vocabulary first then begins to teach her ways to handle a cock. She is complete in her descriptions and unflinching. She lets Petra do all the things she is describing. They talk about how to tell if it is effective. It is a level of minutia that Rey would never have imagined went into such a small part of the sexual act.

"The Supreme Leader would appreciate this next time you shower with him."

They talk about using things at hand to enhance the experience. Fatina makes a gift of some oils that would also provide soothing enhancement and scents as she progresses. Rey realizes the time is getting close to when she must excuses herself.

The educational droid is absent the protocols that provide deference. It is harshly superior as it conducts its initial assessment and proclaims her rudimentary starting level. It does not spare her feelings and unexpectedly her temper fires off to the detriment of the mechanical figure. It is hurtled backwards into the wall and sparks fire from its chest. It promptly inactivates.

Alarms within the room go off at the impact and after a moment they are silenced. Kylo Ren's assessment from wherever he is, has been fast and now she dreads the outcome. He appears shortly after as she has set the droid across the table they ate at this morning. She is working to repair the damage.

"I suppose I should be glad Fatina didn't anger you." His annoyance prevalent.

"I suppose," she agreed, but frustrated with herself.

"Why?" he cannot fathom what caused the incident. She is too embarrassed to admit, but she lowers her guard so he can pick up the way the device incited her.

"It's a droid," he growled. "It is giving you an accurate indication of your level of literacy. It isn't personal."

It is personal. She is mortified by it's conclusion and her reaction.

"Don't do it again."


	4. Chapter 4 - Locked

Chapter 4 - Locked

It is nearly time for them to return and do the next phase of physical training. He orders her to get ready. They go back to the training room and this time he doesn't clear the others who are there. Some leave of their own accord but others are curious or serious about their routines.

He moves to a cabinet and takes out two staffs and holds both out so that she can choose one. He walks her to the mats on the floor and indicates the lines that are just inside the edges of the mat and form a border. "This is the boundary. Do not step outside of it. We will test your capabilities before I decide the regimen for weapons."

"What if I hurt you," she asks. She doesn't expect the staff will kill without concerted effort and multiple strikes but she does think it can be painful to take a blow. Damaging, even.

"You can try," his confidence is large.

He insists she formally start the match with a bow and then the step back to guard and he nods that she can begin. He waits for several seconds for her to attack. When that doesn't happen he closes on her. He checks his speed and seeks for smoothness of motion. She fumbles to catch his strike and the two pieces of wood hit solidly. He retracts and advances consistently moving her back until she becomes aware of the boundary. She does a spin that is better footwork than he expects. Following her he doesn't relent. She stays on defensive for a while before it crosses her mind to start pushing back. Her moves have less flow, but she does manage to insert them between parrying his charges. They keep this up for 10 minutes before she steps back and straightens signaling a stop.

"What?" He asks impatiently.

"I've fought you before. This isn't you."

"I'm giving you a chance. I am not trying to kill you, Petra."

"It's too slow," she remarks.

He shrugs and takes off the breaks. He gives a flourish of a twist and then salutes and waits her answer. This time she jumps straight at him and he counters and his return stuns her upper arm causing her to yelp, but she doesn't drop the staff. She recovers and they engage again and she successfully deflects his much faster assault. She is concentrating harder, now and he appreciates that he has her full attention. They spar for another 20 minutes before she breaks, panting hard. She's received several stinging blows, but honestly not so many as she should have. She landed one strike to the small of his back. It smarts but was hardly crushing. She didn't have her weight in the strike.

"All right," he sighs. "I have the measure of you."

The scowl that receives amuses him. He feels good despite the bruise. The action has loosened him up after several hours of sitting at meetings and locked in with council members. He is glad for the chance. His regimen of exercise had suffered after Snoke's death and he appreciates that he should have made the time.

"Just like that?" She questions tartly. When he shoots her a warning look, she glares. She does not want to say the word he is expecting right now and she's ready to fight him about it.

"Like that, apprentice. Do you lack faith in my ability to measure your strengths?"

"You've failed before at it," she baits incautiously.

This can't stand and he now has to correct her insolence. He backs her into the ring again. He lashes out fast and hard. She is tired and despite the swirling warning of his anger, she is unprepared. It knocks her hard to the ground and is considerably harsher than just a bruise. He pins her down and seeks her submission. She is angry.

Like a bolt, a strike radiates out from her, but he's expecting this and dispels the effects against himself. The other people within the room are less fortunate. Several are thrown back. He considers the area of effect. It is probably unfortunate that she came into her power so late. She wields tremendous potential but doesn't control it. Her fight disappears. She has again hurt others without intending. She apologizes as he is requiring but he isn't done being furious with her.

His swift, angry response scared her, briefly, but when she submitted and relented, her residual emotions were frustration and resentment. He expects her to figure out how to repress her reactions. He'd warned her at the start he would not tolerate her challenge to his authority. He'd staged all their interactions to reinforce that expectation. He knew she was too wild and independent to easily slip into the role he required, but that did not release her from the consequences of her lapse.

He made her wait while he cleaned up, and then ordered food. He stayed true to his earlier promise not to withhold meals. The conversations they shared so far seemed expansive to the sullen meal that evening. He realized the only thing worse than dining alone was dining with an angry, sullen companion.

The pain of the workout is flaring up now that time had passed. The abused muscles register the aches and pains. The strikes that had seemed manageable before, now feel more tender as time passes. A factor of her own body's attempt to heal the damage, but unpleasant. He lets it stand despite knowing she is miserable. He waits to see if she will ask for help. He hasn't decided if he'll provide it.

The droid has brought with dinner an item he requested after the morning breakfast. It is a two inch thick strip of leather with metal rings embedded at points and locking fasteners at the ends. He's set it next to his plate but not remarked on it. She's seen it and it has stirred up all manner of roiling thoughts. He doesn't care. He has been studiously keeping his word with her and wonders when she'll recognize that truth.

As the meal concludes, he orders her to come and kneel before his chair. She wants to lash out at his subjugation. She wants to flee. She wants to hurt him.

"I told you this involved swearing an oath. We started without it, but it's time you expressed your dedication. I will not waste time reminding you of rules."

Bending a knee before him is crushing her sense of self. The idea of running away starts things bursting around them. He waits her out as she struggles to shut down the spiral using what he's shown her. Slowly she comes forward and takes the position he has demanded. He dictates the oath and she repeats it and swears to it. He slips the strip of leather around her neck and locks it. Flush to her such that she cannot slip it off but enough give that he can grab it. Locked in a manner she cannot undo.

She cries silently as he does this. The tension in her body gives out. She's sore, exhausted, run into the ground with this action. Her only hope is that he can save her before this kills her and she isn't sure any longer that it is the better outcome. Her head sinks against his knee like the Pet he has named her. Struggling to find her balance with him.

He sends her to her quarters to meditate. She quietly follows the direction but the effect is just huddling in dejection. She's emotionally wrung out. He mentally reprimands her lapse and insists she do better. When he finishes his own evening work he does the same exercise but separately. He finds the state readily, but admits it is practice and discipline that allows.

When the session is over Kylo Ren releases her but does not summon her back to him. He intends to leave her to her own devices for the night. Alone in her room. He had thought at the start of the day he would invoke other aspects of their agreement. If she was fighting with him, scheming, or otherwise contradicting his commands it would be so much easier to make her relent to his contact.

This sad broken version effectively drains his desires. He cannot afford for her to see him affected by tears. She doesn't know this is needed, it isn't strictly his dickish manners guiding his insistence that she swear the oath, follow his instructions without pause. Ok, the collar was him sticking it to her, but there was a method to his madness. She would grow overconfident if she thought she could manipulate him, and sex could be her weapon in this regard.

For now, he needs space from her. She is in her quiet, dim room. The sense of her that he recognizes through the force is weak. If she was better at this, she'd be shutting him out, too. He figures she's withdrawn into herself. A mental fetal curl. Before long he recognizes the pattern as sleep. He continues working well into the evening.

It is late and she's been sleeping but startled upright from a nightmare. As her location and circumstance come back to her, she panics. He feels sudden shifts in the energies to answer her and it slipping her control just as fast. It becomes dangerous as she stumbles further out of balance. He cannot penetrate her disordered mind to put her under like he did the first time. He rises and walks the few feet to her room and grabs her arm only to send pain shooting along her nerves.

It gets her attention and although he relaxes the grip, she holds on to his shirt front and tries to even the breaths that are coming in short pants. He should slap her face the way he did the first time. He should snarl his commands. Those quick decisive plans turn to dust when her lost, terrified eyes lock to his. His arm reflexively goes around her. He is calm as he folds her close in an uncharacteristic moment of reassurance. She mentally crawls her way back, but he rebukes her approach. She is bottling the pressure when she needs to disperse the energies she has called up. He coaxes her to the state she needs to achieve so this can reverse.

He holds her through the effort because it gives her strength. Rey can't reconcile that need with her situation, but it exists. When she finally dispels the force waves, she slumps down. He's seated on the bed but his feet are still on the floor. She is entirely on the platform. Her fingers have withdrawn from where they touched his chest. Her head is in his lap. Her knees and feet tucked close making her shape as small as she can manage. She's facing away from him looking across the room, unable to meet his eyes. Her breath has relaxed. He lightly touches her hair.

When Kylo Ren's fingers slip to touch the leather of the collar a hopeless sob comes from her. "You needed this punishment, but it is also permission. You need to let go. Give yourself to our training. Your constant hesitations, evaluations, and challenges only impede you. When you come to me without those barriers, you will find what you need. Free yourself."

That his apprentice does not respond doesn't worry him. She is raw from the constant frictions and it is arguable whether she can accept this instruction. She has to choose it. He will not allow her half measures.

"We'll talk in the morning, Pet."

He shifts his position to stretch out along the platform. She repositions to accommodate his change of rooms. When she finally settles, she leaves space between them and he doesn't assert further dominion. She falls asleep again.

He wakes up to her pressed close against him. In sleep they show more affinity than awake. Her arms circle his chest and their legs are tangled. He should be annoyed but he wants to tear down her resistance. He is sure this shift was her doing and not his. If he's honest, it feels right to have her in his arms. He doesn't just want to win, conquer, and dominate. He doesn't expect her to turn, although she has more fury beneath the surface than she acknowledges. He wants her as his ally and companion. He guards this reflection. It didn't serve when he voiced it before.

He decides his official duties can wait 10 more minutes. She's been quiet and steady the rest of the night. Maybe one terror was all he should expect. He is suspecting that isolation is a trigger for her panic. Leaving her alone precipitated the loss of control. Yesterday had started well enough, but once he'd exerted pressures and punishment, once she was exhausted, her control had deteriorated. He can probably keep her from destroying the ship, but she'll divide a part of his attention.

She is shy from having to peel herself off of his body. She is still processing his late night words to her. When she wakes he shows her how to take care of the simple injuries. She knows about this kind of treatment, but has never had ready access to it.

He has her take the same place to meditate as the day before lower than him, on the floor. He is positioned in the bed they've shared. Still warm from where they've lain. The covers askew. She copies his example. Her attempts better than she's managed recently. The silence still pervades. He knows it is hard to find your voice when your identity is being rewritten.

When she is ready to talk to him about what he said, he doesn't know what that response will include.

They repeat the previous morning's routine, except he ends with the run because he is planning to stretch it longer than she thinks she can handle. She doesn't stumble, but she's about to when he stops the exercise. Her breaths come in gulps as she tries to recover. She holds her side and he imagines it indicates a stitch, but she hasn't asked for help with that, so he lets her manage.

When they hit the shower she doesn't question the task he presented to her the prior morning, but she improvises beyond what he expects. It takes his breath away, astonishes him. Her fingers first tentatively brushing along his fast responding cock before forming a light grip and squeezing gently. It feels amazing and it's been a long time since he did this for himself, let alone allowed another. This kind of touch is not something she knew about yesterday. He could kiss Fatina for her astute recommendation. He would have responded to even terrible technique, but Fatina's given her excellent guidance, and Rey isn't guessing about what he enjoys. She feels it shimmer between them.

He's stunned as she finishes him. She has no expectation of further. He isn't prepared to take this further in the morning minutes before his first council meeting. She looks shyly pleased that this went well. He prods her psyche. It seems unlikely she's managed to accept submission so quickly, and she hasn't, but she'd been shown this yesterday and acknowledged it was part of their agreement. She's done what she can handle, hoping it would hold his appetite in check. She knows little enough about how passion works.

It will take more than his explanation to enlighten her. He saves that for when they have time. He stifles the urge to kiss her. He wants to. His mouth waters at the idea of feeling her lips. It will shift the balance between them if he does. It will destroy the impression that this is transactional basis for his taking her as apprentice. He wants to kiss her, but he wants the upper hand more. He exits the shower and they both dry off and get dressed.

"What were you dreaming last night before you lost control?"

Rey frowns. "Losing my parents. It's a familiar nightmare."

"Do you have it every night?"

"Mostly," she guesses.

"Not when we slept together," he seeks clarity.

She sees where he's going and corrects him. "I had it then, too, but it wasn't as sharp. It didn't feel the same. Like it was a faded memory."

"Is it the actual memory? Or is it created from your subconscious?"

"I was very young. I don't trust it to be real."

Her evaluation might be correct but he's seen this memory and suspects it is real. "You think I should sleep with you to keep that from happening."

He shrugs and then can't exactly wipe the smile off his face. He feels good after what she's done during the shower. He wants to sleep with her for reasons that have zero to do with safety. But sure. "It might be a good idea until your discipline improves."

Her expression allows that she's picked up his dual purpose, but she does not snarl him down. "How are you changing the effect?"

"It might be my force counteracts your energies, or your emotions are less volatile."

She can't reject either guess at this moment. His comfort last night had been reassuring and melted her to the core even if she didn't share that with him. The feeling of being close to him might lessen the nightmares. She had little enough to go on in that regard. Knowing he was dangerous and dark did not counteract her attraction to him.

She liked the sense of power when she'd touched him intimately this morning. It had seemed impossible, but as she did it, Fatina's words had rung true. She'd enthralled him for those minutes.

"Are you teaching me the way Luke taught or Snoke?"

"Snoke received me when I was mostly trained. Luke did the early preparations. I'm starting with lessons Luke provided."

She is relieved to hear this but should realize that both masters would have pressed her physical acuity and her mental discipline. The Dark Side was less prissy about the grounding but both required focus and capacity. He feels well matched to teach her. Luke's efforts would have frustrated her quickly. She's not as pure as she imagines. She has nothing near his darkness, but anger and fear power her efforts sometimes. She is strongest when she is righteous, but those moments are few. Her light seduces him. He has fallen far from enlightenment, but knows his potential makes him powerful. He could find that place if he wanted it, again.

He quickly shuts off that line of thought.

He needs to attend his responsibilities. He leaves her to repeat the same plans as yesterday. Before he departs, he considers his next instructions carefully.

"You'll consider trying to escape once I leave, and I want to assure you that every shuttle bay and escape pod is keyed to alarm if you enter and the only way it can be released is with my personal command. I'll know if you attempt and I'll stop you and the results will be excruciating." He says this with calm words and no particular venom. "When the urge strikes, you can either admit your need to stay where you are or fight me. Only one of those results complies with your oath." he warns lowly.

She nods.

He nods and leaves but carries the memory of her touch with him. She's in him in a way he hasn't ever allowed before and it makes his heart pound a little harder.


	5. Chapter 5 - Supereme Leader

Chapter 5 - SUPREME LEADER

The trouble with being Supreme Leader is the myriad of things pushed before him that require his decisions. He looks at the long train of endless sessions and begins to wonder how this is even arranged. What are the things that bind the First Order together and make it function beside the uniform and the taste for Imperial ship design? He starts making his commanders articulate their priorities and overarching goals. He finds his bureaucrats less reflexively sycophantic. He starts to think on this and apply his mother's political training.

The bureaucrats have held their places through various intergalactic regimes. They are specialists in their agency's quirks and requirements. They find ways to adapt. He starts to consider the chameleon qualities. They are not sworn to a cause. They want to carry out their tasks. They are needed to do those things.

What parts only exist because of the First Order? His military commanders. But he qualifies this. Every regime requires security and defense. His soldiers are warrior zealots. They are trained and indoctrinated to a cultish degree. They have not been allowed to question authority. They are what they needed to be under Supreme Leader Snoke. It is an ill fit for Kylo Ren's conception. He admires skill and loyalty over mindless devotion.

The former right hand of the leader should be more sympathetic to their origins and purpose. He was a breathless follower. Any atrocity they would consider, he's done it. He checked away his conscience in a box while he showed his loyalty to Snoke. Killing Snoke was not the act of a man suddenly decrying evil. He'd killed the leader because he wanted to take his place. There were other, nobler reasons mixed in with that one, but he will not forget that taking the mantle was a victory he sought. It was the one thing he finished the day with…after Rey fled.

The day stretches, but he prefers to ask questions rather than be bombarded by endless needs. He wants to consider how it is all organized before he allows time and resources to be swallowed by an endless maw.

When he enters his room suite he could swear the teaching robot tasked with providing Rey a grasp of literacy is scowling. He looks worse for wear. She's technically seen to repairs, but if he had to guess it was grudgingly. She is learning the alphabet and sounds associated with each symbol. He witnesses that the droid has a level of snark not often permitted in mechanicals. It is fully willing to harass her into responding to the exercises. She is sullenly going along, but relieved to realize the time is over.

"He survived today's lessons," Kylo Ren remarks.

She is considering how to address his amused remarks. "Why is that allowed? He's been programmed for elitist condescension."

"Maybe it's effective?" He doesn't care. He'd learned all of this when he was a child. His tutors had not been droids. He recalls the face of the teacher who taught him to read.

Rey feels this memory across their connection. His genuine fondness for the woman who was one of his early teachers. Neither of his parents had that kind of patience or time, but he'd been in good hands. Rey touches the image in his mind and it shimmers and then he closes this off. It is far too intrusive to let her inside his head. Not that this memory matters. It is nothing.

"How did you try to undermine my orders today?" He asks softly.

The look on her face goes stone still. He smiles darkly at catching her unprepared. He sees it.

"You asked Fatina to remove the collar after she remarked on it. You mind controlled her. She tried and failed."

He points to a place in front of him and her eyes grow round with shock as she understands. She is ordered to stand there…then kneel. He lets his hand stroke along the collar and finds where the Mistress of the Quarters tried to cut it off. What Rey hadn't known was that the leather was reinforced with plas-strips that made to be unbreakable. The mechanisms are machined in a way that defies all manner of pick or dismantling.

He folds his fingers around the collar and lifts her straight off the ground, startling her and crushing her windpipe. She kicks heedlessly as he brings her eyelevel. As points of light begin forming in front of her vision he warns her lowly.

"You are a foolish child Rey."

He drops her and she sprawls at his feet coughing and unsteady. He tells her to get ready for their weapons training. She is shaking from his violent albeit brief response. He stalks away and strips off his tunic and prepares. He doesn't care about privacy the way she is prone to do. He is hardly shocked by her action, but he has to make a cost for that disobedience.

The session this time starts with him showing her a routine sequence. A practice series of moves to demonstrate various moves, poses and defenses. She is stiff from unaccustomed exercise yesterday and this morning. The worst of her bruising is treated but the muscles protest her efforts to warm them back up. He keeps her repeating it until he is satisfied.

When it is time to face each other he moves with deliberate slowness.

"Did you feel the force within you as you fought, Petra?"

"When I called it," she is out of breath.

"Master," he reminds darkly.

"Master," she cannot meet his eyes as she says it. She is ashamed to have others hear her say it.

"It's always there, Petra."

"Yes, Master," she abandons objection to the word. She thinks about what he's saying. She knows it, but why does it matter. It's always there.

Kylo Ren's shoulder has tensed. His fingers have flexed. She knows the choreography of these things. Her weapon is up as his strike comes down, unannounced. She feels the way his muscles are bunching and the cast of his gaze and she's parrying again in several sharp sequences. Her feet spring her up from the ground as he would sweep her and they dance onward. He's fast and she knows the smallest signals and intuition are permitting her to catch his attacks.

"You feel it," he asks as he continues.

She cannot respond to him and hold her focus. She doesn't think he wants words from her. He wants actions. He wants her to keep anticipating him. She's working hard for it and her arms feel like they are taking hammer blows every time he connects with her staff. She's holding a low stance to try and ease her balance and make it harder to take her off her feet but it is grinding through her hips and knees.

Finally her weapon snaps and the shock of it shattering startles her. She blinks and in a panic catches his weapon with her mind freezing it. He lets it freeze, inches from her face, before he strong arms it out of her force grip but not to finish the stroke. He pulls it back to his side.

"How was that different?"

She stumbles trying to describe what she's done. It is nothing like her fights the last three days. She'd needed her entire mind engaged to defend against Kylo Ren's advance. He doesn't give her words for it. He doesn't feed her terms. The force is more primal.

Bowing formally, first, she acknowledges the end of the lesson. He takes her back and blows out a breath as he considers his choices for cleaning up. There is no way he's giving up a chance for her to put her hands on him the way she did before. She follows his orders. Disrobes, albeit with the moves of one who is fully battered. He lets her tend the marks she's acquired. When she steps into the narrow space of the shower she takes up the cloth, but he takes it out of her hand.

"You seem to have lost your voice," he remarks.

Her cheeks flush. "I don't know what to talk about while we do this," she is trying to complete this as quickly as they can and conversation seems a sure method to delay.

"We'll amend our deal," he offers. "While you are naked before me you can ask any otherwise impertinent question." He is teasing her now.

"Have you done this before?" she blurts out.

"Often," he tells her slyly. "Most days I bathe."

This makes her blush creep further down and he uses the soft cloth across her shoulder, first. She doesn't know what to do as he makes this action. Her attempt to scuttle away from it is hampered by the narrow space.

"With company?" she haltingly continues.

She's in profile to him and he uses the position to rub the soapy cloth down her back, admiring the curve and form of her. The fine musculature that wraps her bones.

"Would it be better if I did or did not?"

He's ready when she shoots a probing query his way trying to figure out which is true. She cannot penetrate his guard. But she's faltering. She's tired and hungry. She longs to curl onto her bed. She has to think about that lesson, but it is so hard, and he's distracting her and her body isn't behaving correctly.

"I don't care," she offers a lie. Feeling her need to protect herself allows it.

His hand finds the collar at the back of her neck and as his fingers slide around the band, the band bites against her partially restricting her airway. Such a manual way to do the thing he has frequently practiced on his commanding officers. She tenses in alarm and her hands try to pry his grip loose.

"Do not lie to me, apprentice. Ever"

She gasps as he releases and her balance fails. Her arms catch her from falling to the ground as she slumps against the wall and the water runs across her.

"I don't like the idea of you doing this with others. I think you have. It makes my skin crawl to imagine it. I want to break things, tear that person to pieces. I want to scream at you. I hate that it matters."

Her body is reacting erratically to his domination. The impending sexual consummation that is part of the bargain she struck is lurching to the forefront of her mind. He senses her heightened, emotions. The lust and desire, self-loathing, and fear swirl in a combination that mostly reads as anger. She hasn't imagined he is going to wind it all tighter.

He finishes washing himself and leaves her behind. He is drying and contemplating fresh clothing when she steps out. Her nerves are practically vibrating. She is hopelessly confused by his sudden move away from her. He is not conveying anything that hints what to do next.

Fatina has offered her advice. When in doubt make the move. _Powerful men don't want to have to be the aggressor every moment_. She is dripping wet as she walks across the floor towards him. She catches his hand as he finishes taking fresh clothes from a cabinet. The flicker from him is measured. No one has approached him like this in ages. He drives people away with his dark lord persona. The cold of the air is making her shiver and her nipples tighten. It's beautiful. She is beautiful. He doesn't push her away for the advance, but he doesn't telegraph what is next, either.

"You're the one who has gone quiet, now." Her smile is so thin it vanishes with his regard.

"You misjudged me," he says simply.

His hand moves quickly and she didn't notice it before, but he's holding a silver chain. He clips a metal carabiner to her collar and then uses the length to pull her by it across the room to where his bed is. He loops the other end around a to a support strut beneath the platform. The chain is maybe six feet. Her hands fumble. Shocked by his act, she stands there, stunned. Then her hand lashes out and she would have connected with his face if he hadn't caught it.

"I told you what your oath required before you came here. No questions. Complete relinquishment of your will. If you imagined that was only at times, you can correct that mistaken impression, now. This is for earlier when you attempted to unfasten the collar without my consent. You can enjoy the full reason I thought you needed one."

Her mind is catapulting over all manner of rebukes and attacks. He glares sharply and it reaches her that he is fully aware of the foul names she is about to hurl at him. She does not have the privacy of her mind to test options with him. She wavers. She recognizes her oath as binding, even if she hates him. Realizing her lack of options she takes a shuddering breath.

"I'm cold, Kylo," she tells him.

He drags a blanket off the foot of the platform and hands it to her. She unfolds it and wraps it around her chilled limbs.

"I don't know what you want me to do," she admits.

"Become my apprentice. Give up trying to control what happens next. Give up the past and the future. Do not expect or regret. Only be in the moment."

"I'm trying," she knows this is meek and uneven.

He acknowledges. "But you need to be pushed. It isn't in you to surrender."

"If it is against my nature," she tries…

"I am remaking you. The person that can wield and control the powers you possess cannot be the person you arrived as. You have to break and rebuild yourself. That is the purpose of the training and the lessons. Not tricks for turning powers on and off and how to apply them. It is how to reform yourself."

He finishes dressing and goes to the desk and counsel at the far side of the room to continue working. He needs to cover the briefings he's receiving. He has to look at the recommendations and acknowledge if there are more facts to uncover. It is hours and she slides down the wall beside his bed refusing to get into it. He ignores her. He doesn't even command her to meditate. The hour is late when he shuts off the lights and goes to bed.

Rey is curled in a tight ball on the floor, asleep at the corner of the bed nearest the head. She's fully asleep or he would never allow his mind to slip to a moment's regret. He wants her, and she'd intended to offer him sexual gratification. It had smacked of duty and obligation and he'd recoiled at the idea of letting her carry through. He'd known when he demanded it that she would hate following through, but unexpectedly so did he. He didn't want it to be punishment when she came to him.


	6. Chapter 6 - Reap What You Sow

Chapter 6 - Reap What you Sew

Rey has spent three days wearing this collar and spending nights locked like an animal at the side of his bed. He removes the chain during the day and makes her repeat the routine they've established, but she is sleepwalking. Her affect has flattened and she is not fighting, arguing, trying. There are no outbursts during the day, but at night powerful quakes of force waves ripple out of her.

During their training he is ruthless, expecting to rekindle the fierceness he knows is within her. It isn't pretty and he won't back down. He's sent her hard to the ground repeatedly. He stops when he hears bones crack. He sends her for medical services to recover in a full bacta tank. This reverses the physical damages of his hard training but the withdrawal remains.

She is obedient, but nothing about what they are doing is furthering her hold or understanding of the force. He is baffled with this collapse. He did not think she was fragile. Needing to uncover the root, he accompanies her to Fatina's this time. She might be different with others. The mistress of the Quarters is quick to attend them.

"Supreme Leader," she blows gracefully. "Thank you for coming. How can we serve?"

Kylo Ren disregards the attempts to make this place polite and normal. "I wish to discuss how Petra is progressing on her instructions," he tells her.

Fatina leads them to a private, comfortably appointed room. It is elegant but spare. It prominently features a bed but also couches to sit on. He tries not to imagine how the various surfaces have accommodated previous guests. He takes his seat and Fatina does as well. Petra looks between them uncertain.

"Our Supreme Leader favors domination and wants you to behave as his pet, girl. You know what place you are permitted." Fatina points to a spot on the ground and Rey blinks but does not argue and lowers herself.

Kylo Ren watches with hooded eyes. "Keep going, Mistress. What are you teaching her?"

"Do you wish for her to orally pleasure you, Supreme Leader? She has been practicing that method, along with…"

"Practicing on who?" he is deadly calm but the tremor is a warning.

Quickly recovering, Fatina assures, "Devices sir, video logs, only, sir. She has not been touched by any man while she is here. That is for you alone."

"Can _you_ demonstrate what her training consists of?" Kylo Ren asks and a flush stains her cheeks, but she nods.

Fatina rises and goes to a cabinet within the room and removes a smooth but still phallic shaped rod. Soft rounded edges but still hard shape. She brings it and shows it to him and then her hands begin an almost hypnotic pattern of stroking it as she moves back to the chair. Then she raises it to an angle pointing downwards and with an almost elegant tilt to her neck she begins to let her tongue swirl across the tip and then she worked it into her mouth. The mistress knows what she is doing and her exhibition is unhurried and fluid.

Kylo Ren nearly jumps as Rey shifts to reposition between his legs, easing them apart. She is looking at him and not the Mistress, and she is trying to read his reactions. She ought to be better at it. She is a million light years from the girl he encountered in the forest with this pantomime of debasement. Sitting here is making him aware of the problem. Rey has spent too much time with Fatina and the Mistress of the Quarters has presumed he wanted a submissive slave of a sexual companion.

Rey's hands slowly ease up his legs and she'll be touching his erection within moments. He captures her hands and holds them still. Nothing about this, now, entices him. He shakes his head and calls an end to the portrayal Fatina is offering.

"Petra is my apprentice and a powerful manipulator of the force. You have been teaching her to behave like a cowering animal."

"Your employment of the collar and chain led me to believe you desired that type of training, sir," Fatina is keenly aware of his displeasure. "I can correct to whatever type you prefer. She was taught basic physiology to facilitate her knowledge of how to address your needs. She was provided advice on how to conduct herself. I worked to remove an aspects that were unwilling or uncooperative."

"How did you overcome her unwillingness and uncooperativeness?"

"Punishment, Supreme Leader," she is treading on thin ground, but she does not avoid answering.

"The types of punishment you employ include?"

The Supreme Leader is famously volatile and prone to angry outbursts. He is not the same as Leader Snoke who relished darker more malicious actions. All the same, Fatina has not revised her approach with the recent change. She produces a tasing device. It has settings for various levels of electrifying charges. He takes it from her and examines it.

"What level of pain does this inflict?"

"Strong levels, but no physical marks," Fatina assures. "Subjects are momentarily overwhelmed and incapacitated."

Kylo Ren rises from his seat, raising Rey to stand. Then he steps closer to the Mistress. "I wish to see a demonstration," he chillingly warns. "Are you ready?"

Fatina pales visibly and the smile she's manage to fix on her features drops. He sees what he needs to know and weighs returning a small piece of what Rey has endured.

"Cease this practice immediately. If there are those in your service who require this form of motivation they are unsuitable to working here and should be released. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Supreme Leader," she drops to a knees.

Kylo Ren triggers the device to shatter and drops the pieces from his hands.

"Petra won't be returning," he turns and catching Rey's elbow takes them away.

His pace is quick and although Rey moves well he is practically dragging her along the corridors. When she fully stumbles he releases her and rounds on her. His blood has gone cold from the presentation. It should have stirred his desires and instead it made him ill. He's not prudish enough to reject pleasure, but there was nothing in what they'd shown him that was anything other than mechanical calculations. And he also saw the sources how Rey was being destroyed by the methods.

"Why didn't you tell me what was happening when you went to the Lower Quarters?"

"Tell you what?" Rey looks at him, the first hints of anger still strongly tinted with confusion. "She did what you told her to do."

"I said to learn what was involved with sex. I didn't expect her to torture you."

Rey is shaking. It's been three days and the best she can manage is to be numb to all of it. He is glaring at her in anger as if she's done all this. The bolt of reaction escapes before she can ever diffuse it. She sends him reeling into the wall. He is startled and then shakes it off like a wookie. Growling he stalks towards her.

"How is Fatina not dead from your angry outbursts?" he demands.

"I swore to obey you and to cooperate with her and I hated every instance of it and you told me I had to or our agreement was over," she is shaking and so are the walls and floor beneath them.

Kylo Ren puts her out rather than imagine he can curb her turmoil. He made a mistake and he precipitated much of this with his own actions and attitudes. The collar was a symbol in his mind but it clearly signaled to the Mistress of the Lower Quarters the type of expectations he had. That Rey had revealed he chained her only reinforcing the impression.

Lifting her off the ground, he carries her back. He gets rid of the chain. He contemplates taking off the collar but he leaves it. She isn't free and this is still a physical reminder of her oath. He needs her primed to be obedient and responsive. He doesn't need her whipped. It is his own version of the Padawan's short uniform and ridiculous hair style. He should have been more careful with his signaling device.

While she is out it is impossible to clearly delve her mind, but he does assure himself that she is not injured in ways he'd previously missed. He could ask her to assess this while conscious, or conduct the exam while she is awake but he's not sure he should trust her to be forthcoming. He has to call to her mind that omission is the same as a lie. He flinches because omission was his subversion when under Snoke's scrutiny. He releases his lock on her consciousness.

First it is a flicker of coming to, then she starts, fully and things rattle.

"Calm yourself, immediately," he uses a level voice, soft and insistent. "You are not in danger."

"I struck you," she recalls, in a tiny voice. "You…"

"Calm," he pushes force command at her. Not enough to overpower her but she feels it and responds. "Listen.

"I did not know that was happening to you and did not expect or want it. You can claim justice and decide punishment for Fatina. But before that, right now, settle and control your emotions."

"I don't want to punish, Fatina," she bleakly tells him. "I don't want to."

"Fine," he relents. "I'll see to it."

Rey cannot be calm and process her tangled anger with him. He made this happened, he made her endure this. He set it up and what did he expect….she shuts down these thoughts as tremors ripple out again.

"You don't have to speak about it," he softly tells her. "I see the thoughts from your mind. The blame you assign to me. The hate it inspires."

"Hate is not an inspiration," she reacts to his characterization.

"It is for the dark side, Rey. Hate can give you strength you've never imagined."

"You are working to turn me dark," she fears.

"No," he answers quickly, surprised by his own conviction. "I did not expect Fatina to inflict that kind of cruelty against you. The collar is a priming signal to you that you need to follow orders. Your will is not your own while I train you. It is not sadism."

"Every day you beat me to the point I can barely move."

He is jolted to have her encompass more than those times in the lower quarters and he shouldn't be. Her daily continuum is bleak. "The weapon's training is difficult, as I warned you. Each session we treat your injuries."

"You chain me to a wall at night."

"I will stop doing that," he updates. "You had sought to undermine my efforts and I had to discipline you."

She can handle him at moments like this. Just the two of them. He isn't easy for her, but she feels she pierces through his stubborn, difficult moods.

"I'll adjust your schedule and the methods. This isn't working. You need time to recover and heal. You have release to spend your time meditating and free of other demands."

She wants to sleep. He feels her exhaustion. He's placed her in her bed and she might not get out for days if he permits it. He rises.

"You are my apprentice, Rey. Never think I will allow anyone to lay a hand on you except for me. You have my permission to kill anyone who tries."

The repercussions more enervating than simple machines could register. The dim room stays quiet for the next 18 hours. She sleeps without stirring or nightmares.

A/N Sorry for this being short. I am setting the turn.


	7. Chapter 7 - Rebuild

Chapter 7 - Rebuild

When she presents herself the next morning she looks frayed and less kempt than he expects. He directs her to him and doesn't touch her but considers her both physically and mentally.

"Fatina is gone from the ship," he tells her.

"Gone?" she thinks this means dead and he shakes his head.

"Released from her contract and sent home," he revises her understanding. "She failed to carry out her duties in a manner consistent with the requirements of the position."

"Fired," Rey thinks the First Order has very few people who get told to go home.

"I kill traitors and criminals. Incompetence rarely rises to that level of response," he contradicts. "Does this surprise you?"

"I don't believe it," she is saying the truth, but the suspicion frustrates him.

"Then don't believe it," he shrugs. "You are not going back, so it hardly matters. Prepare for strength training. We are leaving in ten minutes."

Her energy level is miserably low, still, but it is a foundation she must improve if he is to broaden her capabilities. He has to move them forward and not let her shrink away from the teaching. The physical workout pushes her but she knows each step now and follows him. He's reasonably pleased that she pushes herself to improve her conditioning without being prodded. It will be a while before she can match him. When they are back at the room he still is keeping space between them. After they clean up separately, he motions her to sit for the meal.

"Did Snoke make you sleep on the floor of his room with a chain around your neck?" her tone is sullen.

"No," he replies.

She wants to challenge his methods, she wants to scream at him. He shoots her a warning glance as he takes his coffee. It is enough to short circuit the disrespectful tirade she's preparing. He needs her to stop having the inclination to argue, but stopping the expression of those challenges will have to come first. Chaining her was a nasty thing to do. He'd done it to humiliate her and it worked. That others built on his efforts was the part he should have anticipated.

"What was Snoke's equivalent?" she asked. He appreciates that she realizes there was one and he is not strictly a sadist.

"Snoke's specialty was giving physical pain. He ran shocks through my system until I vomited and collapsed. He seared skin on the soles of my feet and demanded I run. He battered my body until I couldn't stand. He found all manner of ways to shred my nerves. He ordered me to kill my father to prove my loyalty."

This is said dryly, but she senses the tight control he has on his voice. It shakes him still to revisit those episodes of his training. To sink back to that state of loss. The effect of Snoke's mind searing efforts far exceeded Fatina's methods. She'd felt it briefly. The former Supreme Leader did not hold back when he ripped through her psyche in the throne room. Kylo Ren had empathized so completely he'd changed his future. If it hadn't been like that, would he have figured out another path forward? He doesn't believe in destiny. For all of Rey's faith in her vision, he cannot lock himself to an outcome.

"That sounds terrifying," she doesn't dramatize the statement despite the strong word. She's matching the intonation he provided.

"To come through it is to be a different person."

"I don't feel like a different person, today."

"But you seem like one to me," he judges. "It will happen by degrees. You will adopt a different outlook and approach. You will be ready to accept what the training can unleash."

"My problem is leashing the potential. Was there more symbolism in your efforts than I realized?"

Shaking his head, he finds her humor morose, but even a weak joke is a sign of improvement. "No. You were disobedient and I had to respond or you will expect to get away with more in the future. It is basic discipline."

Rey isn't so childish that she will tell him to 'use words,' next time. Such a comment will require him to repeat. "I don't want hate to be an inspiration," she quietly reveals. "I don't want to turn dark."

He shrugs. "If you want vengeance then your nature will cause a turn. If you are able to avoid that motivation maybe you will remain light."

This bait is a trap for her, but he sees her recognize it. If she blames his methods for her response she is failing to honor their agreement. He watches her face pinch in an expression. He doesn't need to delve her to watch the pattern that is streaming across her features. She isn't all right with the game he's playing. The fuses on the lights nearest to pop and sizzle, the mechanicals on the wall begin smoking. He considers reprimand but feels her lock it down quickly.

"You can request the droids to deliver what you need for the repairs, today. Meditate, practice the skills for reading." He says these things lightly without inferring judgment.

The time in his day crawls while he attends the leadership responsibilities. He is called upon to make sweeping decisions about entire systems. It is heavy, technical, and not especially interesting. He grinds his way through. So many quiet lessons and examples from his mother leap forward. He knows these tedious decisions impact hundreds of thousands. That there are competing interests and compromises are not easy to come by. Intelligence has always served him, but playing the long game with the fate of these worlds requires wisdom. He begins to better understand the things that motivate his advisors. He finds their temperaments and natures. He catalogs and organizes this information. It informs how they will present information to him. Who he can best enlist to counter their weaknesses. It is complicated human chess matching the advice he receives to the moment.

There is also no trust within this officer corps. They compete to win his favor. They will undermine each other and gossip viciously. He realizes this was a tactic that Snoke stirred. It makes his skin itch. He stops it abruptly whenever any of them begin. It isn't that these sleights are incorrect. The tactic is petty and beneath what he wants as the operating mode of his top ranks. The problem is also that they are not used to relying on his responses. He is forced to recognize that he's been volatile and inconsiderate to every one of these men in the past. A spoiled child outside their chain of command. At the Supreme Leader's right hand, he'd been a regular terror. His diatribes towards Rey are haunting him during these meetings.

Today when he makes his way back to his rooms, the literacy robot has acquired a damaged appendage, but is bravely carrying forward with its assignment. Rey is copying letters onto a board and providing a word that starts with the same sound. The droid is immune to the words she is selecting or the theme developing. He weighs comment and decides to save it for dinner.

"Get ready for the gym," he ends the lesson.

He instructs the literacy bot to seek maintenance. He could have her repair it, but he has the feeling she would rewire it completely. Her efforts to subvert the irritating verbal ticks would probably impede its performance.

The start is similar to the day before. She warms up with the staged moves he demonstrates. They repeat it numerous times and he feels her begin to slide into the flow of movement. She can be graceful.

"I need to watch your form, so I'm having members of the guard serve as your combatants. These three are MX-8685, 8686 and 8687. Do not use your powers to manipulate them. Only to control yourself and your responses during the sparring. Don't kill them."

The three men are identical triplets. They had names before enlisting, but are now collectively the MX-brothers. He doesn't know how Rey will react to them, but he thinks the oddities about them will distract her and he wants to see how she handles it. He's seen her fight when it is high stakes, but perfecting her approach will take time. He thinks they are unlikely to level the same level of ferocity he inflicts. If she isn't afraid of the pain and injury, she may benefit from the practice.

He allows her a wooden staff. The three guards facing her bow and then break apart. She tries to keep them in front of her but is at the very edge of the ring, now. They feint in towards her jabbing and retreat with fast backwards jumps. If she stretches for the hit she will find herself overextended as another steps into her. This continues for a few minutes and then she lunges at the one she thinks is slowest and she quickly lays him out, sweeping his feet and smashing a strike across his temple that incapacitates him. She pivots but takes a hard strike across the back of her shoulders that nearly launches her outside the ring. She can hold herself from toppling but takes two more hard hits before she spins and counters. Her aggression drives the guard backwards in surprise at her change of demeanor. The last one sees the futility of his position and launches at her in a desperate move. He surprises her and pushes her feet back and she scrambles to recover her balance. She swings wildly at first and then she regroups and closes him down.

Kylo Ren has watched all of this from outside the ring. He steps forward and casually confirms they are unconscious and not dead. He would have felt it if she'd killed one of them. It is a closer thing than she knows. Her control is not so finely tuned that she could be sure her actions were recoverable.

He dismisses them, and steps forward. She is breathing hard, but her posture and responses are not showing exhaustion. He slips a blindfold from his pocket and fixes it across her eyes. "Yesterday you used your eyes to predict my moves. Today you have to stop relying on them and employ your other senses. Adjust your position to keep facing me as I move. And position your staff to block. I will not strike."

If she's attuned, she'll settle into a state where her force perceptions can sense his placement. His first tests of her are to move around her. He can tread silently when he wants and her ability to pinpoint his place and face him will precipitate her ability to catch when he does swing the staff in her direction. She begins slowly. First craning her neck around to better lock in on his position before committing her body to changing facing. He knows she is relying on auditory clues at first and he begins to befuddle that sensory information. He taps her shoulder when she's gotten it wrong. He feels it when she finds the way to anchor this perception through the force. Her moves become definitive.

"Are you ready to move forward?" he asks.

"Yes," she doesn't know how he'll change the action. And she isn't worried. She's right, but once the pressure rises, she may lose her grasp.

"Parry my strikes," he tells her. "We'll pause after each one until I tell you differently. Don't counter."

His first swing is not especially fast, but it is hard. He needs her to know the cost for missing is not a tap. It will either drive her forward or she'll fold. She misses and he thinks her rib might be cracked by the gasp she makes. There are ways to run this drill with floating orbs that randomly fire shock bolts. He despises the contraptions. They also work well for quickness but do nothing for developing strength.

"Again," he tells her when she shakes off the impact.

This time she manages, but it is by the skin of her teeth. She is shaking but relieved to not take a second hit. He gives a second and signals they are continuing. It takes her time to recover her focus and trust the intuition that can guide her to answer the blows. He'd like to move it faster but trusting this intuition is a critical step. Pulling the rug out from under her too quickly will disrupt her command of the skill. She suffers a few strikes. None as hard as the first. By the end she is catching them consistently. He ends the drill and removes the blindfold. He's pleased that at no point during the drill did she try to take it off.

"Are you done, Petra?" he asks.

Rey's eyes find his. "Can we spar without constraint?"

Kylo Ren loves the way she fights when her heart is in it. He wanted her to seek this but left her the choice. On the other hand, he won't go easy on her. He nods and formalizes the bow. They fire off and it is like thunder throughout the space. Others stop to watch. They are both prone to aggressive tactics and they've faced off against each other a few times, so there is not the first halting moves as they find the rhythm. It is a dangerous ballet. He focuses on the task because she isn't perfect at this yet, but she has moments of inspiration.

He feels her grounding herself. She's nearly there. He can pull her out of the effort by distraction and she hasn't recognized this is purposeful on his part. He wants to win and she falls prey to his tactics. _Fights are won in the mind_ , he recalls. Luke told him often enough. He's lost to her before, so he is not overconfident. She won't kill him with the wooden staff, but if she took him down everyone in this room would have to be shot out an airlock to preserve his reputation. It feels good to stretch out and employ very physical fighting demands on his body. He works hard to sustain his capabilities, but he missed this kind of sparring partner. Someone who challenges him.

It isn't long before he's lapped her. She's had the longer day. And fought the others before him. He is pleased she has rejoined this purpose. He ends the match and they realize the audience they've acquired. Rey bows first to him and he responds, although not as low, befitting her master. Her eyes warily slide to the side as she considers the watchers. He motions for her to proceed him from the ring and as they move, the crowd parts to make space.

When he gets to the room he instructs her to tend the marks that she's acquired during the session. The bruise on her side is tender and showing some swelling. She'd fought through this, and he should recognize that her fortitude suits this calling. He is torn about pressing something he wants for personal gratification, and sustaining the tenuous harmony they have achieved for the moment. His desires for her are powerful, but...

 _Before he can bully her to his preferred plan of action, she pulls him toward the shower in his room and begins stripping off her clothing. He doesn't question his fortune. He follows her and when she has the water on and hot she steps beneath. He crowds her this time. He wants to feel skin on skin in a way they haven't except while sleeping. When she leans back into his chest, his hands settle at the curve of her hips. Anticipating the next sway, or move of his hand is intoxicating_.


	8. Chapter 8 - Union

_Before he can bully her to his preferred plan of action, she pulls him toward the shower in his room and begins stripping off her clothing. He doesn't question his fortune. He follows her and when she has the water on and hot she steps beneath. He crowds her this time. He wants to feel skin on skin in a way they haven't except while sleeping. When she leans back into his chest, his hands settle at the curve of her hips. Anticipating the next sway, or move of his hand is intoxicating_.

Chapter 8 - Union

When he feels her test that same force grounding she'd used during their sparring, his attention snaps sharply into focus.

"Do you know what that skill is?" he asks her lightly against her ear.

"Reading your mind, to know your action?" she guesses.

"It works for more than fighting people. The sense is precognitive. You are seeing and sensing what is about to happen in a way that offers you advantages."

Then he draws his mouth along the muscle of her neck and her handle on the force shudders as her body reacts to the anticipation of the sensation and the actual touch. Like echoes redoubling the play across her nerves. A soft moan leaves her.

"Hold it steady, Rey," he prods and this time his hands shift their positions.

One sweeping upwards along the taught muscles of her stomach to cup her breast, the other sinking down to stir the first fringe of hair above her pubic bone. The sensations burst through her nerves and her knees go weak. He, too, is anticipating and he can hold her before she wilts. He pauses because she's tilting in overload from what are intimate but still opening caresses.

Her body twists and she is facing his chest, and her hands hesitantly find their way up his chest. He controls better than her, although she hasn't gone for the most sensitive areas. The double touch feels amazing.

"I want to feel all of you," he previews. He is ending any half-measures. His desire is on full display if she's murky on his point.

She gives a tight nod. He interprets reluctance and is about to defer when she uses a palm at the back of his head to pull his head down so her lips can reach his. It starts hard, but it's like she's releasing pent up frustration, desire and anger. She won't give him a chance to push her away. To say he relents would give the impression he has misgivings. He let her lips, mouth and tongue plunder at will and when the moment presents itself he feeds it all right back at her. He could do this for hours, just taste her and feel that amazing body against his.

"Two options. Clean up now and do it again later or two: abandon this now because standing in the confined space of a shower is not how our first complete sexual encounter will happen."

"That sentence is too long," she breathlessly accuses.

"Bed, now," he accommodates with the short version.

Rey's mind is stumbling on the simple task of coordinating her limbs to realize the direction, while still kissing him. All the grace and coordination of earlier abandons her as she tries to move without disengaging. He finally lifts her and tells her to wrap her legs around his hips. She's firmly grinding against his excited cock but he manages to move them to the relative comfort of the bed. He catches his breath as he lets her down and her legs loosen their tight grip.

He lets his forehead rest against hers with his eyes closed. He is slowing his heart rate.

"You can stop this now, but it is the only time I will ask," he clamps down his overheated desire. He hates himself for giving her release, but he wants her consent.

Her eyes are stormy and the passion is riding high for her, too. She resists being forced to weigh the consequences. "If you say the name Petra before this finishes I'll tear your balls off," she warns him low and snarling.

Of the things she might have said, or asked, that was nowhere on his short list.

"Deal," he agrees.

His mouth finds hers again. She is under his body and moving in ways that prime his responses. He needs to taste her in so many ways. The nubs of her breasts make his mouth water and as he pulls and sucks lightly she makes another involuntary exaltation. It is music to his ears. His hands have tried to balance his larger frame so he isn't crushing her, but he frees one to sweep light touch across her lower body.

His arms are long and he can reach below her knees without losing the feel of her nipple in his mouth. The slow stroke upwards creates a wave of sensation that fires up her spine and as she rolls with it, her breast presses more securely to his mouth. Now his hand is at the juncture of her thighs. The center of her heat and womanhood. She is slick, and pressing into the touch of his fingers.

He isn't patient enough to slow things down and let her direct more foreplay. He also can't spit out reasonable sentences as his fingers are delving the wet folds, but he works for it. Her thighs already open

"Can you find that grounding in the force, again?" he encourages her, wickedly as he savors the moments before he pushes into her.

It's asking a lot to focus, but the idea of the double touch at this sensitive juncture is second only to the point of orgasm. She scrapes it together and her mind tilts as he enters her. She keens instantly and he feels her core pulse against his heated flesh. Welcoming his penetration. He lets her get used to his size, but only briefly. His hips need to find the rhythm. The feel of her is carrying through his whole nervous system and lighting fire everywhere it reaches.

She is gripping tightly to him, anchoring the thrusts he makes. Her skin slides along his. Words evade her command, and his, but sounds push forth. He drives hard. It's been too long and he is coming undone by the ecstasy. He knows when her orgasm hits her because whether she means to or not she opens her mind to his in that moment. It is light washing over her in ecstatic drowning. It triggers his own and her recognition of a darker coloring of her own release.

She is, in sexual response, a recreation of her fighting self. _Light._ He sees the same symmetry in himself, now. Her light intrinsic, not just innocence. He should draw the same parallel. It is too deep a thought as his breath heaves and his skin is hot and damp. He is savoring the residual pulses of her core milking every drop from him.

He softens his approach as they recover. His mouth finds hers again, but it isn't the devouring, hungry exploration he'd done previously. He gentled it, and she smiled shyly.

"I thought I would hate this," she is acknowledging a revelation.

"It was a risk," he conceded. He's relieved at her words.

"Fatina said skilled lovers can dismantle resistance."

"If it was skill," he shrugged. "I knew we shared attraction, but I was overriding your wishes."

"Did you ignore my previous offers because I did them wrong?"

He blows out a breath. "You made them correctly, but your heart wasn't in it, Rey."

Hearing her own name touches her, deeply. Kylo Ren hadn't recognized how much renaming her had hurt. She exhales a tension that has been with her since he imposed it. He kisses her and determines the name may serve for obscuring her identity to others but they can drop it when they are alone. She'll have to remake herself with parts of her old self intact.

This is too new to treat with humor, and he finally pulls out and off of her, but gathers her close. "I don't dismiss skill, but it felt like your offer was genuine. Was it?"

"You have torn down my resistance. Every day, Kylo. You don't get a free pass because I was hot and bothered and sought relief for my frustrations and desires."

This bites harshly. He should not have imagined the fairy tale. "I told you why we train the way we do. That isn't arbitrary or me exploiting you for sexual gratification."

"You could tear me down for this rebuilding process a hundred ways. You choosing sexual obligation is exactly a choice for your personal gratification. You should find another mode if you want to coo and cuddle when we are done fucking."

He's pushing away from her quickly. Burned by this heated evaluation. He can't get dressed fast enough and the silence from her is deafening. She also leaves his bed and goes to her room. He storms out of the place that isn't large enough for both of them. He has a couple of hard choices, now. Punish her outburst, or accept her criticism. He's moving with no destination in mind but he ends up at a place that is familiar. It is an observation deck that overlooks the massive engines that physically process the water on the ship. He centers himself to meditate on the matter. There is risk if he changes. Risk if he stays the course.

This place was one of their earliest experiences with the force bonding. He reflects on that moment and all that has happened to get to this day.


	9. Chapter 9 - Pivot

Kylo's habits draw him back to his chambers as dinner is being laid out. He summons Rey. Indicating she should sit.

"I'm sorry for taking advantage of you," he says shortly. He's not used to apologizing and he'd appreciate if she softened this for him.

Her lips are forming a tight line and her eyes are serious and dark. He stops talking and they both eat in silence for a few minutes.

"I needed to come here, to you. I regret I didn't set limits."

He gives a lopsided smile. "The building was shaking to pieces around you before I put you under. You did not get much chance. I wasn't willing to negotiate. I was angry with your previous choice."

"In the throne room," she specifies.

"You reduced me to begging and turned your back," he has tempered the reaction but it makes his stomach churn recalling that moment.

"I wanted to go with you," she begins quietly. "But I wasn't going to let my friends die. I wasn't going to give up on you. You would have become Snoke and I could not stand by as you lost your humanity."

"You left me alone, and I have taken Snoke's title. I am the Supreme Leader."

There is nothing sophisticated about her grasp of the wider galaxy. She has lived by simple rules and basic understandings her whole life. She sees him. "You are nothing like Snoke. Your people do not treat you the same way. You do not rule the same way. The First Order may carry on, but it is changing. You are changing it."

"Wouldn't you have influenced that, too, if you'd stayed with me?"

Biting her lip she looks down. "I think I would have lost my way. I wouldn't have helped things be better. I can't say how I know, but I'm certain. I would have failed you in more than one way."

It feels like a trick to blame herself as she rejects him. "Your friends mean more to you." He reduces her explanation.

"I never had friends like them before. They are incredibly important to me. They are the break that holds me back from the abyss of loneliness. So are you," she softly includes.

"I don't think you consider me your friend," he parses.

Rey lets her hand extend and it touches his where it rests on the table. He can feel warmth, reassurance. "You mean because I'm required to address you as _Master_?"

Her words coax the corner of his lip upwards. "That is very traditional designation for a Jedi teacher."

"Are you a Jedi?" She asks. She has never thought hard on what constitutes Jedi or Sith beyond light and dark. He knows she does not think of herself as Jedi.

"No," he admits. "But I'm not Sith, either. If anything I am a practitioner of the force."

"We're at least friends," she retakes the thread. "It feels like more at times. I need you, and I was afraid of that. I have to trust you or I won't survive. But when I trust you other possibilities open up. It makes me wish we could start over."

A reset. He thinks this is probably the right call.

"All right," he mentally pushes down the doubt. "Come here."

"Bossy as ever," she sustains the light tone.

He makes her kneel and his first action is to trigger the lock on the collar so it releases and he takes it off. "The oath is the same as the one I had you recite. I will release you from sexual performance obligations."

"I will abide my oath and let you be my guide in the study of the force."

She gives the oath and yet the same gesture as before when she finishes. Her head resting against his knee. A powerful concession to his will and command.

It is like a weight has lifted between them. She is committing to his teaching, and him in a way she couldn't before. Less like Snoke than ever, he knows this isn't a free pass. She isn't afraid of his plans anymore. Everything is lighter when the fear lifts away.

He lets his hand touch her head, lightly. Two hours ago he'd had the best sex of his life, then the bottom had fallen out. Now he has hope. It feels like a badly fitting coat right now, but he's warm and ready for whatever is next.

"You should finish your dinner," he tells her after a few minutes. "Tomorrow will be another hard day. You need the food to sustain you."

She rises and then leans in and kisses his mouth lightly. Just a brush of her lips. "Thank you, Kylo. For taking me in, for not abandoning me despite everything I've done to test our bonds."

"You're welcome," he feels the words are inadequate, but a starting point.

It feels like he's closer to what he aspired to now that he's given up his harsh grasp on her. When they are done with the meal, he points to the same place on the floor where she's performed meditations. He sits across from her.

"It wasn't just about our respective heights," he begins. "Grounding is how you connect to your surroundings. This place gives you closer connection to the ship's foundation and structure. I don't need to touch the surface to find it."

"Earlier you called what I did grounding, too," she's confused.

"The mental state is grounding. Your skills emerge when you can reach it. Practice the foundation and the other abilities will flow more easily."

He settles down across from her and she models his posture and approach. He quickly slips to the state. Her mind is disjointed and preoccupied with the new state of their arrangement. He taps her knee in impatient reminder.

"Do the exercise. This is work."

His previous commands follow in her mind and she does each step and her mind clears. The sense of the force opens to her and it is welcoming loss of self into the wider network that connects all things. She feels the tether to Kylo Ren. His own mentality acknowledges her presence. It is so less distinct. She ponders on the connection they shared before.

Kylo's phantom voice commands. ~Clear all your thoughts.~

She thinks of sand. A grain of sand is one of millions, each sand a tiny piece, together a vast desert. Without separation or variation. Her mind drifts and the grounding takes her. Her identity melts and she is. Just is. _Time floats_. She recognizes everything around her and its interconnectedness, but feels separate and mindful. Her consciousness expands.

Kylo's hand brushing her cheek pulls her back his eyes searching hers, as she reacts he smiles.

"That's it," he eases. "All the way back?" She thinks about this and nods. "Different than half-assed quiet time mentally pondering your situation."

"Very different," she admits in wonder. That he'd been aware of how she spent her meditation time shouldn't surprise.

"I want to understand what makes our bond."

Kylo Ren frowns. "Snoke says he created it, but I don't know of any technique like that."

"Try to open it now," she takes his hand, still seated cross legged facing him.

She's opened it once, on purpose. All the others were spontaneous and unpredictable. He realized it was probably not chance he was alone when they appeared. He forms the impulse and opens his perceptions. There is no distance to bridge. How will this be different? It kicks hard and he realizes that given their physical contact the link has only one other way to bridge them. It bridges their minds.

"Whoa," he releases her hand. "That's enough of that."

Rey wonders if she should be suspicious of his withdrawal. "Why did you pull back?"

"Because, you need to stay out of my head."

He recognizes immediately how defensive he sounds. He is only just realizing how deep Snoke's intrusions had gone and now that they are absent he cannot stand the idea of the invasion it represents.

"I saw a glimpse," she opens. "It was chaotic, full of disconnected ideas."

"Yes," he represses the instinct to lash out. "It's what happens when I probe into your mind. The trick is to find the roots of motives and events so that you can make sense of the cascade that is recorded."

"Did you figure out how the bond is created?"

He has a sense of what created the connection. "I think I did it accidently. I delved your mind deeply in the forest and later in the interrogation room. The memory you have about your parents leaving you. The one that is your nightmare. It resonated with my history. I attached to it."

"Is that the reason I keep having the dream?" she asks.

"You would have it before we ever knew one another."

"But buildings didn't crumble apart," she reminds.

"When you encountered me the potential stopped being dormant. It might have awoken at any point but once like knew like, there was no going back."

"Did you ever have shocks of anger you couldn't control that caused harm?"

"Yes," he tells her. "But I was younger and my parents knew the cause. They sent me to train with Uncle Luke."

Rey is willing to stay on the floor but Kylo Ren prefers more comfortable seating. He extends his hand and she lets him draw her up. He pulls her close for a moment, and both of them freeze. Then she leans into his body, accepting his arms around her.

"Luke Skywalker was your uncle," she avoids mentioning his father. That is painful to her in ways she has not resolved.

"Leia Organa was my mother," he tells her and she shakes her head.

"Resistance royalty," she wonders. "All heroes." When those words unearth wounds in him, she reassures him. "They have storied pasts. You know them in ways I don't. They are not the perfect people of their legends."

It was a partly a guess on her part. It was Luke's regret. She senses it underpins Leia's sadness. Her brief time with Han Solo carried warmth but baffling discouragement, too, at times.

"No one ever understands that about them," he accepts the qualification. It is truer than she knows and source of terrible pain for him.

He pulls her to a couch and when he takes a seat he keeps her close. His hands have grown possessive with the need to hold her.

"I had a vision of you before I met you."

"Really?" he is curious. Her prescience is strong, then.

"I was in Maz's place and I was exploring the lower catacombs because of a sound I kept hearing. It lead me to Luke's light sabre. When I touched it I had a vision. My parents leaving me, you lashing out, and us fighting in the forest at Star Killer Base."

"Did you know you would win that fight?" he wonders if that shored up her will during the encounter.

"No," she shakes her head. "It was confusing and scary. I remember the mask."

"You didn't like it when we were in the interrogation room."

"It's a terrible thing. You use it to disguise yourself. It isn't you."

He hasn't put it on for a while. Snoke's ridicule of it had caused him to realize it was his attempt to mimic Darth Vader. It is probably useful that the mask disappeared at the same time he became Supreme Leader. People respond differently to a face. They try to read him. They find reassurance talking to a man not a mask.

"It has uses," he provides. "I chose it when I committed myself to the dark side."

"Snoke didn't require it?"

"No. He appreciated the fear it engendered. I was his enforcer during my apprenticeship. I was sent out to kill. I was a hammer that formed the First Order to his design."

"Now that he's gone, who do you send out to kill?"

Kylo Ren gives a dry short laugh. "Hux, I suppose. He has the desire, if not the competence. I'm less enamored of the authoritarian tactics of my predecessor."

"The Resistance would choke or cheer to hear those words."

Her tone is light and she has a gift for understatement. "Don't get too excited. It turns out that putting the brakes on autocratic rule is a process not an instant accomplishment."

"How do you mean?"

He describes the evaluations he's been making. "The First Order tilts too far to autocratic oppression, but the Resistance cannot offer stability or security to its adherents."

"The Senate was governing, and the First Order destroyed it."

"The Senate was floundering. Frozen by the inability to overcome factional disputes. It was so egalitarian it pulled itself to pieces. The First Order just picked the bones clean."

"It wasn't perfect."

"Rey," he tries to check his urge to lecture. "My mother was a Senator. I know its inner workings better than most. She was a strong, principled leader and not able to check the abuses of small minded representatives."

"What then?" Rey doesn't know and has no preconception.

"I'm working on it," he admits. "I don't know if it will succeed."

"Working on what?" she's curious.

She's the first person he's opened up to about the ideas and plans he's been making. It feels strange to say them out loud. Her attention is rapt. There is nothing guarded or skeptical in her regard. She doesn't question or deflate his aims and goals. He's even started sketching out what needs to be done first.

"How can I help you?" she asks.

"I need to cultivate people who can meet my outcomes, but I can't upend everything. Holding the line on chaos is needed. Otherwise others will sense weakness and try to step into the place of the First Order."

"The Resistance might," she toys.

"Their leadership is decimated. They have fighters and zealots. Not people capable of taking on the mantle of leadership. The Resistance is hardly the likeliest candidate to rise in a new war, or stop one from coming to my doorstep."

They talk late into the night.


	10. Chapter 10 - Knife Hand

Chapter 10 - Knife Hand

They've passed the night together. Kylo intends to sustain their process of training and going for a run, but he reaches and she doesn't shrink from his touch. She sighs contentedly under his attention. Her eyes close and her face is peaceful. She languidly pulls out of the sleepy pause, and tugs him to her. Their lips connect. She tastes him sweetly. Sweetness dissolves into something warmer and stickier as he kisses her back.

Not under the mad chemistry of first night, he uses slower longer strokes to awaken her responses. She moves silkily beneath his fingers. Her hands work into the thick waves of his hair and tingle as the work into his scalp. She breathes a shuddering moan when he lightly cups her breasts. She pushes her pelvis against him. She is grinding her pulsing center against him, feeling his heat and the hardening of his cock.

He works his mouth along her golden skin, going lower. When he dips against her bellybutton, his hands sliding along her waist she squirms in a brief flare of ticklish sensitivities. It makes him smile. He never imagined this about her. Her sex beckons him. He wants to stroke her intimately, taste her, work his tongue along her as his fingers push inside. The fingers stroking his scalp tighten as she recognizes his plan. He feels her trepidation. She's never had this done to her. It stokes his possessive nature as he growls in satisfaction at the idea of initiating her to this experience.

Rey's breathing is unsteady. Her sounds are music to his ears, driving him to plunder her thoroughly. She tenses and her arches. He's taken her to climax. He lets her shiver in aftermath before he changes position and eases himself deeply into her. He draws it out as long as he's able, but her damp, clinging form sends his senses into override, and the wave of pleasure sweeps him.

He holds her and ignores the chime that prods him to be elsewhere. She's spent and the sleepy exhaustion permeating her creates a temptation to stay in bed with her for the day and repeat this as many times as he's able. The chime is replaced by a knock and Rey's eyes go large as she considers leaving to her own quarters. He shakes his head, giving her a light kiss on the forehead before he rises and slides on pants. He strides to the outer room and straight to the door. He wants the interruption over, but knows once he sends this person back, he cannot crawl back beneath the covers. Benish has the sense to look cowed as he conveys reminder of the session ready to start. Kylo does not waste breath making excuses. He provides an estimate of his arrival and turns and closes the door.

Kylo Ren regrets that he cannot stay with her submerged in this small space that is only the two of them. Going to sit at the edge he sighs, and recognizes his limitation. "I have to attend my responsibilities. You can use the time to study and meditate. Sleep if you're too tired for either of those." His hand lightly touches her face just before he leans in for a quick kiss.

She scowls at the prospect of lessons, but he presses.

"You really hate that literacy robot."

"I hate that I don't know how and everyone around me does."

He works for what sensitivity he can. "I want to keep it as part of your training even if it isn't about using the force. You should have had this before now."

"I struggled to scavenge enough for food and to keep my speeder functioning. There was nothing left for teacher's fees."

"Fees?"

"The teachers at Niima Outpost collected fees from the students to participate in the lessons. That's usually how it works."

"Hmm." He considers. "Many cities have taxes and use those to sustain education programs for their children."

"Wealthier worlds," she guesses. "No one at the Outpost would have accepted someone charging fees without direct return."

"You hate the instructor," he presses, "but manage until I can seek a replacement."

"Don't you have ultimate power? Replacing the irritating machine should be a finger snap."

Not untrue, it hasn't been his priority. "Is that what you are requesting?"

"Please," she admits. He represses the urge to roll his eyes and diminish her ask.

"I have to go, now," he admits.

The Supreme Leader has three junior officers as assistants. He sends them on numerous errands and contacts. He assigns them research and asks them to form recommendations for his consideration when his senior staff's options do not meet his needs. They are eager to perform well for him. He enters his office and directs one to advise the waiting military council he will be there directly. This is code for 10 minutes. Not enough for them to depart and be summoned back.

"Itran, how did your family arrange your early education?"

"Supreme Leader?" he blinks. "I attended Black Mountain Academy prior to being admitted into the Cadet Program, then I was enrolled in Military Academy prior to beginning appointed as an Officer in the Intergalactic Naval forces."

"What age were you while at Black Mountain Academy?" He is seeking beginning education.

"Age 5 through 10, Sir."

"Academy is private school?" he infers. "Your parents are wealthy?"

"I am fortunate that way, sir."

"How about you Benish?" This man came through military education program. His parents were in service and the base oversaw his education.

"Sennec?"

"My mother taught me at home, until I enlisted, sir."

"Thank you for that information. I need information about how each quadrant of our controlled worlds provide early education. I'm looking for literacy rates of each world and average level of schooling completed by the populace. Benish and Itran, please collect that. Sennec, you have a task to complete before you assist them. Please leave while I provide Sennec the additional information."

Sennec stands at attention. "My apprentice is from a poor world and has never received any formal education. She is bright and clever but I need a tutor to provide literacy instruction, advance her understanding of history and science. Your discretion as you complete this task is integral. Find and bring a candidate to the ship. Inform me when they arrive."

"Of course sir. Did you want to show her the Reading Room data pad program?"

"The what?"

"It's a very simple program widely available. It follows the pace of the pupil. It was helpful for myself and my daughter."

"Does your wife instruct your child?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is this cultural observance or lack of resources?"

He blanches, "Resources, sir, but I'm grateful for my post and our fortunes have improved under the First Order."

Kylo waves off the attempt to diminish the situation. "Put in a request for your daughter's schooling to be sponsored. I will approve it."

"Sir," he bows. "Thank you, sir."

"I value your service. Your daughter represents the future of the Order. We need the families of our best officers to prosper."

"Thank you, again, sir. I'll take care of this immediately."

Kylo takes a deep breath and then steps across the room into his meeting chambers where his commanders have been waiting. He moves briskly to the front of the table.

"Let's begin," he does not apologize for delay or test their tolerance. He understands that his soldiers do not need accounting of his minutes. He carries through his day.

/&&&/

Rey bolts upright from a sound sleep, and almost immediately things begin fizzing and metal groaning. Kylo Ren comes to full wakefulness. This is bad. Worse than he's seen it. She seems awake, but her eyes will not recognize him and the storm of her thoughts deflects his efforts. He cannot reach her. Ship wide signals begin triggering alerts to him that would register on his room communications if she had not fried them moments earlier.

"Rey!" he throws as much command into his voice as he can. It would melt most, but she doesn't hear him call.

He physically takes her into a hold that gets her head between his elbow and body. It slows blood supply to her brain. She doesn't have the presence to fight it until her consciousness starts flagging, but he puts her all the way under and then retrieves a damage report. She wrenched some sensitive systems. The ship has redundancies to protect against failures. The hull integrity is sound. He is relieved. She is coming around. Her neck is stiff from the hold he placed her under. She is disoriented and pale. He hasn't seen this in a long time. Stricken.

"What happened? The nightmare hasn't created this kind of response in days."

"It wasn't the usual nightmare," she says softly. "I dreamed a killer is in our midst."

Kylo Ren is slow to decide this requires questioning. "What kind of killer?"

"Secret killer," she says disjointedly. "Smiling, poisoner. But the poison will fail. He's persistent. He tries twice more."

"Twice more to kill?" Kylo asks. "Who?"

"You," she looks at him like she's seeing a ghost and then she blinks and he could swear it's as if she becomes more solid. Like she'd been elsewhere and now she's back. He thinks this might be the case. She was channeling a vision.

"Smiling poisoner?" he turns over the words. "Then twice more. Do you know the killer?"

"No, I see the smile, not the face."

"How helpful. Is it a distinctive smile?" He tries for clarity and can't entirely cover his annoyance.

"It's a man," she realizes her tiny specs of information are nearly useless.

"Do you know when?"

"Soon," she can't say why she thinks this. "When the second chair of the military council room breaks under Havath Noskum's weight."

That statement is more specific than Rey could have known. His chief of logistics is a ponderingly obese figure. His regular seat is the second chair on his right. The chair could break at any time.

"In your vision, does the killer succeed? You see me dead?"

Rey looks at him and blinks and thinks about the vision and keeps scanning it. "Let me see it," he commands as if she must release it to him. She unfurls it, and he growls at the tenuous flashes. She starts unraveling and he mentally gives her the equivalent of a shake.

"Its fine, Rey," he tells her. "I'll be fine."

Kylo Ren's reasoning for this would make her crazy. He believes she saw it as a warning, and what good is the warning if they cannot rise above the danger. He hasn't seen indication that he's struck and unmoving. The vision is maddeningly cryptic.

"You are going to be hurt," she does not share his optimism.

"No," he disagrees. "You need a new task during the day. Until this passes, you are my bodyguard."

"I'm what?"

"The most likely way to recognize the clues is for you to be present with me at all times. You are going to follow me everywhere until we unmask the poisoner."

"Shouldn't we use your security forces to investigate and find the killer?"

Kylo Ren shakes his head. "Assassinating leaders is a longstanding tactic, Rey. The fewer people who are aware of your premonition, the more likely we are to unmask the individual. Give no clues but be watchful. My life is in your hands."

"What if I fail?" She shrinks from that outcome.

"Then I expect you to claim vengeance," he fatalistically shrugs. "After that, claim command. None of my other commanders are fit for the purpose."

"I will _never_ command the First Order," she growls.

Shaking off the presentment of her late night vision, he centers himself and meditates on what she's seen and how he may be part of this. He is calming himself and marshaling his resources so he is prepared to deal with this Smiling Poisoner. Rey follows his lead. He needs her calm, too. With luck she's given him enough to thwart the plot.

The night is not very restful for either of them. Come the dawn her mind is moving a million miles a minute.

"New schedule," he declares. "No two days the same. I will advise Sennec, Itran and Benish each morning. We'll shift locations so our person must bring his weapons with him. There will be no chance to place resources ahead of time. We do not take our meals here. We go to the ship's mess hall."

"Will that be enough," she tries to swallow her concern, but it is a tough lump to get down.

Rey touches his cheek and her face goes soft and serene for a moment. He isn't sure if she's delving or committing this moment to memory. He has given her commands and she knows what she must carry out, now. He feels her heartrate steady.

They dress and he shows her the schedule he is planning to see if she will note anything directly. She's dressed in what he's come to think of as her basic uniform. She wears thick knit pants that are warmer and softer texture than ones she brought. She underpins her tunic with a long sleeve black shirt to ward off the cold. She has course grieves that fasten around her lower arms. The color complimenting her shirt. She does not wear rank or insignia of any kind. He has insisted she replace her old worn brown boots with ones that match her trousers. Black and capable of having a spit polish, if she was ever one to bother with such task. He should instruct a droid to perform the nightly maintenance, but he suspects she would rewire it. She keeps her hair braided tight to her scalp. It is severe, but he's gotten used to it.

Going to a cabinet on the wall, he opens it and removes several items. He slips two into the belt where his lightsaber is fastened. Then he hands two curved silver daggers to her. She considers them. They are wicked sharp. The design is unfamiliar but they fit well in her hand. She takes the curve up between her thumb and index finger and it feels wrong. She reverses it and realizes these are held to be like a talon. She can strike like she's throwing a punch and it will have a nasty sweep.

"Yes," he notes her handling. "That is how they are held. Keep them close to hand."


	11. Chapter 11 - Mess

CHAPTER 11 - MESS

"We've never taken a meal in the mess."

"You'll find out why when we get there," he previews. "Keep your senses open, but don't act like you expect trouble. We want to lure the killer close."

The room is a booming cavern. It is noisy, steamy, and smells of food and cleanser in a way that is not conducive to consumption. There are all manner of people going through the line to receive hot meals, taking beverages from dispensers and seated at long ranks of tables. She studies this for a long moment as the clear the door. It is not visibly dirty, but there is a pungent earthy smell that permeates.

"How are the seats decided?" she asks and Kylo Ren casts his gaze across it.

"The usual way," he tells her. She follows him as he leads her forward.

A man in smeared apron quickly shuffles from behind a serving counter and comes at them at a flapping pace. "Supreme Leader, what an honor" he loudly booms.

Kylo bristles and Rey subtly shifts slightly in front. He greets them and offers that he can provide them whatever servings they would like. The man picks up trays with partitioned sections, and at the slightest show of recognition adds a ladle of the food.

"Please be seated sir, anywhere, anywhere," he twirls about and his frantic energy is making Rey jumpy.

One of the MX-brothers, she isn't sure which touches her elbow to get their attention. He gives a brief bow and invitation. "You are both welcome at our table."

Deferring to her less sunny companion, he nods for her to follow the trooper. As they cross between the crowded tables there are whispers and stares. The other members of the table the MX brothers claim have all been participants in the training exercises. They easily shift over to make space.

They greet them with friendly welcome and some deference, but nothing approaching grave formality of muster. Rey asks them about the items on their trays. They find her unfamiliarity with institutional foods amusing and good naturedly tease her about it, but also offer their estimations of the qualities and makeup of various items. They tease the head cook when he sets down the two trays trying not to have contents slosh over their edges into each other.

"So smart, Sir, so smart." He hovers behind them without taking a seat. Then, erupting as if everyone is familiar with some prior part of a conversation. "Old ship master's cannon. If the captain eats with the crew everyone is happier."

"Pardon?" Kylo Ren is baffled.

"Officers and crew eating together means harmony. The common kitchen provide better for everyone."

Kylo waves a small hand and looks at him. "You have to go now," he says firmly but softly. Several surrounding them hear and watch as the cook repeats the sentence, bows and departs.

The table erupts in laughter.

The two visitors have a chance to test the dishes. Comparisons are made. It is lighter and less onerous than Kylo had expected when they came into the door. None of the squad is afraid of his presence. His presumption that the invitation to take a seat was brown nosing dissolves. None of them ask why the two of them have chosen to take their meal in the hall. There was a chime that advised him they had to depart. A different MX brother, or maybe the same one, offers to clear their trays when he takes his own. They make space for them to get up.

Rey moved with him and they departed. "Why haven't we done that before?"

"Did you see any officers in that room?"

"Not a one," she wonders if she's making an error. "That's what the cook was getting at. The officers take their meals separately?"

"Seems so," he blandly agreed.

The chamber hosting the council has two guards at the door. Itran, Benish and Sennec are waiting for Kylo's arrival. They take in Rey's presence but do not react. Itran shows him the list of attendees and the run of subjects to be covered. Rey pauses as she sends her perceptions forward. He lets her complete the task. They do not have to confer when it is done or the lack of detectable threat. He gives direction.

"Walk behind Petra," he instructs his aids. "You follow me and stand behind my chair. Keep still. Use the smallest motions possible. Become unnoticed. Do not respond to anything said during the session."

Rey's eyes are on him and she doesn't have to nod to convey that she's accepted the orders.

The guards at the door pulled back the portal and Kylo Ren sweeps forward with long strides and eyes forward. He stands at his chair and scans the table of the seated commanders taking note of their attentiveness. Behind each man are one or two aids. Younger officers who carry tablets and materials.

Rey is a step behind at his shoulder. His senses can place her exactly.

"Let's begin," he doesn't linger on pleasantries.

The session includes numerous status updates for the First Order fleet. Those vessels with actionable reports are first and as the report regresses to normal functions, he ends the update. He seeks information on the status of the Kalibran. A silver haired man with long face and cleared his throat and waited to receive a tablet from a young man who is cycling through files. He hands the deck to the older man.

"Supreme Leader," he speaks in a formal, clear voice. His eyes scanning ahead. "General Hux advises the ship is currently in solar synchronous orbit. The man adjusts a tab that raises a holographic three dimensional map. He marks the placement.

"The mining station on K44 was being targeted by saboteurs." The narrative is said in short declarative sentences. At points where locations are mentioned the map responds with marked positions."

"Our ship is 28 parsecs from the nearest point of incident. Is there an explanation?"

The man looks at a loss and then squares his shoulders and shakes his head. "I do not have that information, sir."

It catches Rey's notice that there is something unsoldierly to commander's aide. He's painfully thin and his hair is not the neat, short, groomed appearance of others surrounding them. He is fidgeting and moving constantly. Kylo Ren's guidance begins to make sense. This younger assistant's uneasy posture detracts from this senior officer.

The next segment shifts to troop readiness. A sharp featured woman stands and crisply opens a new image for the attendees. It displays charts delineating target numbers, progress, and prior years. She shifts to a Venn diagram that represents the dispersion. She highlights the key areas and then moves to the rates of depletion. It is a very cold way to convey the deaths of so many.

"Are the rates of our casualties rising or falling from last report?" Kylo Ren asks.

"Falling, sir."

"What is the estimation of enemy strength?"

"Rising sir, nominally, but they had nowhere to go but up."

"Yes," he concedes. "Which places represent the greatest danger to our forces?"

She points to three zones where there is active fighting. "What is this?" he asks. It is denoted by an acronym. It is the eighth highest bar on her image.

"Force training and friendly fire."

"Can you separate those two aspects? What incidents occur in combat zones versus behind lines during training?"

Her chart has excellent flexibility and she is well versed in how the numbers are assembled. She teases out the two elements and he is reasonably relieved that friendly fire is a small part, but he looks at the other piece.

"I would like analysis on the root causes and recommendations for measures that can reduce this figure. We should at least give our troops the opportunity to survive their training."

"Yes, Supreme Leader."

He signals to move to the next subject. His own aids are making notes for each request.

It goes for two hours and he holds it to that length through ruthlessly directing his officers to hone their points. He has no patience for puffing and wasted declaratory language. When it breaks and the others have exited his three aids remain and take seats at the table to await his assignments.

"You can take a seat, Petra," he tells her without looking back. He shoots her a brief mental warning to remain silent and not respond to any of what she hears.

"How much do we disclose?" Itran asks, shoot a glance at her as she moves to the chair that is second from the right. She's oddly considering it before taking the place. It is a blunt but appropriate question.

"She is my knife hand," he tells them. "Become used to her being at my shoulder. There is nothing you say that she will repeat."

"Yes, Leader," the three of them indicate.

"You're up first, Benish," he directs. "What did you find about Kalibran's mission?"

"Sir," the younger officer bows. He adds small insights and his sources. It appeared to Kylo Ren that General Hux was being made to chase his tail. He's disappointed but not surprised. He cycles to the next. Both of his aides began to advise him of the education levels of various regions and the major programs of presenting early education.

"Wealth improves it, but talk about the Eldener and Sossix Systems. Those are not well off but sustain high levels."

They looked at each other and Itran is somehow nominated for the response. "There could be cultural or non-traditional economic mechanisms that cause this difference."

"I need you to go and make a determination about cause," he decides and the man nods.

"What can you preview for the next session?" he moves briskly.

The talk goes onward and he can sense that Rey's focus has drifted. He, too, feels no threat from these three men. He finds them reliable, loyal, and unflappable. She's considering whether being at the scene of the vision will unlock more detail. He needs her not to do this, while they still have other witnesses. He shoots her a silent warning thought to hold any such exploration.

He asks Sennec to identify a new room where the next session can be held. He does this without explanation and the man looks startled but quickly moves to fulfill the request. When he has found a place Kylo Ren requires that they dispatch the revision.

"Sir," Sennec wants to ask, but Kylo waves away what is coming next.

"Just do it, Sennec," he is firm in his direction not inviting questions. "The three of you, go ahead and make sure the room security compliment arrives and is stationed first."

"Yes, Leader," they respond as a set and depart.

Rey has observed all of it but her eyes look far away.

"We don't have long. Be quick."

She nods. She closes her eyes and casts herself for the grounding she's become better at reaching. She connects and it's as if she blends into the structure of her surroundings. She has to touch the skill that pries open the visions. It is a reluctant door. She replays the images from her nightmare. She rolls them slowly back and forward. It isn't empty mind, but it is focused.

Whether she realizes, or not yet, she's reinforcing to him that this room is a location of action. He contemplates how he can use this.

"Smiling, poisoner," her lips form. "He's not Havath Nosskum, but…he falls, he was jerking away. The hand makes the hole. Not a hole, an absence of life. It isn't Nosskum, only he pulls back."

She snaps back and looks at him. "I keep seeing Nosskum's jerking away and falling to the ground and next thing you are poisoned." She is disappointed. He listens and considers. Then he shrugs.

"We should avoid this room," she recommends further justifying what he was guessing.

"No," he disagrees. "Knowing it is here narrows the angles. If we make that change the future will regroup. I don't think it would prevent, but it might make it morph into a variation we haven't witnessed. There is high probability that there are variations on your vision. The exact path to the future can run through any of them until it becomes past."

"I don't understand," she is confounded and her premonition scares her.

He describes what are the basis for his belief statements and he's extended beyond her grasp. "When you take a ship to light speed the smallest adjustments in your targeting can land you in entirely different sector. You have to thread a needle to get to the point you are aiming for. The future is a distant point. You have to be precise to get it exactly

"But I saw…"

"You saw a few odd scenes and have strong presentment that trouble is coming," he reduces. "I reject predestination. My path is my own. You must control your fear. It will stunt your ability to respond. Acknowledge it and move past."

Before they start the new session he gives a series of orders to Benish to have video links installed in the room and monitored and recorded nonstop. The man nods and departs because his experience has been that the commands of this nature are not suggestions for the future. The Supreme Leader is always in the moment.

When they have finished a second large council session and then half a dozen individual meetings, Rey's thoughts are rumbling. Her feet are tired, she's bored, and she could use a trip to the bathroom to relieve herself. Kylo Ren holds the next session and gives her a pained glare. She's been silent but his sense of her has absorbed these details because beneath the surface she is not as composed.

"Sorry," she sheepishly mentioned. "I wasn't expecting…"

"The numbing boringness of command?" he anticipates. "The washroom is through there. You have 5 minutes to pull yourself together. We're not done yet."

The impulse to expound on this is large, but her bladder prioritizing her actions. She is surrounded by people and not able to react, respond, shout at them, call out their posturing. He's been insistent that she not talk or interrupt. It's gone all right so far, but her patience is fraying. She's tried hard to sustain her sensitivity. Always watching for signs that recall her vision.

"A little longer, Rey," He pushes her when she returns. "You've done well so far, but we have to finish."

The last meeting is the tutor Sennec has located. She is young, a little clumsy and terrified to be standing before him. She can hardly meet his eyes.

"You can take a seat, Dahl Windsong," he points to a place. "Describe your education," he prompts when she collects herself within the chair that is too sleek and modern for her many skirts and long scarf.

The tutor has had practice with this interview question and gives him something she's clearly conveyed before. He asks her about her experiences teaching. She has taught both young children and older. She has had students one on one and taught to classrooms with as many as 50 young pupils.

"Never adults?" He asks. He can sense that Rey has figured out who this person is.

"I," the woman's eyes brighten and she smiles. "No one ever asks," she warms to the subject. "A few of my students have parents who didn't learn. I teach the family so that they can all share. It is hard for a parent to admit they are unable, and a burden when they cannot aid their child. My grown students express gratitude that is far and beyond what younger students ever think to express. It means more to them to overcome the barrier."

"You are aware this task is to start immediately?" he does not want long goodbyes.

"I am available," she looks around. "My home and school have been destroyed by war."

"Was it the First Order?" He asks, curious if his own forces are to blame. He does not think Sennec would present him a candidate who was a security risk.

"No, sir," she shakes her head. A swell of emotions threatening to overcome her. "A civil war on my home planet. I could explain the points of dispute, but they seem useless."

"Is the war concluded?" he is guessing that it is and her side has been displaced.

"Yes," she confirms his supposition. "They destroyed my town, and took the land. I cannot get work because I lived on the wrong side of an imaginary line. I do not care about the political leadership, but they care enough to force me to leave."

"It's a foolish loss for them," he concludes. "Will she serve, Petra?"

Kylo Ren senses the yes before it is verbalized. "Yes, Master," she observes their protocol.

"Am I to teach children of the crew?" the woman sniffles and strives to regather her composure, maybe for the first time seeing Rey within the room.

"No," Kylo Ren conveys. "Your charge is my apprentice, Petra. You have today to get settled, tomorrow Sennec will advise you when and where the lessons will be conducted."

Petra steps around and faces the woman. She is searching her face and touched by her story. There is time later for them to know more about each other. She is under command to be silent and she observes it but her smile changes the tone and she reaches forward and clasps the teacher's long thin fingers. She gives a small bow and steps back to her place.

Dahl is speechless but knows an exit when it is presented. She thanks the Supreme Leader as she rises from the chair and then muddles her way from the room. The door is still closing when he feels Rey's arms circle around him from behind.

"Thank you," she murmurs, before releasing the hug and straightening so they can complete the day's sessions.


	12. Chapter 12 - Proportional Response

CHAPTER 12 - PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE

First Order council meetings have been droning affairs for four days. Maybe the change of having Rey with him has caused his Smiling Poisoner to become more cautious. The chair that Havath Nosskum sits himself in is as challenged as ever. He holds sessions in the room today because he is tired of waiting. His recklessness frustrates Rey, despite her faultlessly carrying out his instructions.

Then a security alert interjects into otherwise bland session. The First Order copes with open rebellion on three fronts. Regular military hostilities are the first section of every session. Alerts are less frequent but not entirely rare. This notice goes up from a place far removed from those hot zones. The seats at the table shuffle and he is quietly watching for the things he thinks will preface the move against him, but instead his force commanders begin taking on details and forming calculations and estimations. He is looking for response recommendations.

Dossaides is a hub world in the First Order planet configurations. It has mineral resources and extensive communications facilities it serves as a commodities market site for twelve additional worlds within proximity. It has consistently sustained a level of affluence and it has strong governmental controls. It acceded to the First Order by treaty without shots ever being fired. Its crime rate has been historically low, but like most places never fully gone.

This situation comes with special circumstances. The target of the attack is a school filled with children. Many of them the children of members of the governing bodies. The attackers are in a position to leverage their hostages in a way unfavorable to the goals and position of the First Order. It is organized well enough to have the planet defense forces frantic. These actors show more than garden variety ruthlessness and cunning.

Preferring current information, Kylo Ren seeks a status update from the local commander. The man comes onto the channel trying to smooth out his appearance and sounding strangled by his tight collar.

"Supreme Leader," he stammers and begins to catalog the known information.

"I can read all of that background faster than you can say it to me commander," he interrupts in order to control the direction of the exchange.

He leads the man through several pieces of information. The hostage takers, known as the Red Arm, are seeking First Order involvement. They feel if their grievances are known the First Order will determine in their favor. This is preposterous, without ever knowing what or why.

 _~You could mount a rescue.~_

The voice drifts to him from Rey. She's scrupulously offered it as a private exchange, but is still disturbing his efforts to assess and decide action. She is well aware his instructions about silence include this manner of communication.

 _~The men holding that building will not negotiate with local leaders, but they want your respect.~_

 _~It's a piss poor way to achieve it.~_

 _~Showing up to negotiate their offer would give them pause. You may save lives. It would neutralize the action and not immobilize an important trading port.~_

He knows what is missing from her description. She isn't saying he grant concessions beyond appearing. By going himself he stalls imminent violence and make room to move. If he comes alone, or with only an apprentice he may seem less dangerous, although he always stokes fear of his presence.

 _~Are you ready to fight your way out of there?~_

 _~I'm pretty certain that the Smiling Poisoner hasn't had his chance yet, so it seems unlikely you'll be killed doing this.~_

He almost coughs at her reduction. He is going to do it, and he's making her come along. In part because her perception of the First Order is shaped by the _Rebellion_ and her interactions with Snoke. She has no idea the politics that fostered it or the reason the Resistance is no better positioned to make peace.

"Prepare my ship," he directs his aides. "Commander, advise members of the Red Arm that I am coming to hear their terms."

"Sir," he looks like he's swallowed something unpleasant. "My past experience with the actions of this group lead me to recommend against…"

"I read that in your summary," Commander, he stops him. "Prepare my arrival. Convey that to the forces at the school. Include this: if any demonstration of violence precedes the start of our conference, I will bomb the building into dust and erect a memorial to their stupidity. I will then find every person, no matter how remotely connected." He does not expand on what happens at that point.

"Yes, sir," he salutes and the connection snaps away.

Now he must shut down his own officer's warnings and deferrals to stay away from the confrontation.

Petra follows him. He goes to the armory and asks her to select her weapons. She does not select a blaster and it crosses Kylo's mind that he has been too focused on hand to hand combat methods. Guns are less elegant, but effective.

"You are doing this to save the kids?" she is doubtful after hearing his last words to the commander.

"I'm doing this to make an example of the Red Arm. I don't want my central words plagued by others inspired by these kinds of acts."

As the ship comes out of hyperspace the local commander has laid groundwork by informing the men holding the building the Supreme Leader is coming to speak with them. When Kylo opens the communication's audio channel the man presenting himself as leader has a manifesto-style proposition he is reciting. Kylo Ren rolls his eyes and ignores it. He hefts the mask that he's not worn in a while. Rey knocks her head to the side at his choice to don it.

"Shock and awe," he admits. "I need their undivided attention and if they are afraid of me, all the better. It makes people clumsy and stupid."

"Fear makes them unpredictable," she counters.

"Rarely. Usually what they do very predictable when they are afraid."

Before he opens the door he looks her up and down.

"It would be a good moment for you to apply the skills we've been working on. Stretch out your senses and be ready?"

Kylo Ren lets the door open and tells her where he wants her. This isn't arbitrary. He understands this action in ways she hasn't contemplated. He doesn't tell her that the first steps off the ship are the most dangerous. He's scanned for heavy guns and believes they are lacking. He believes he can catch any handfire but if enough of it comes at them, it wouldn't be simple. His ship has commands for several contingencies. Mostly he wants them to sit tight. He's eager to see her in this action.

The middle-aged man in faux military camouflage comes to the door showing his empty hands. He does not leave the cover of the portal because the city forces would take the opportunity to gun him down despite the tentative negotiations. Kylo Ren strides forward and makes a small gesture. "You will tell us where your forces are hiding on the other side of this door."

He appears to shake hands with the man but the slack faced man is responding with information that dissolves any concept that this was going to be good faith effort. He's softly interrogating the man and the hapless greeter is giving away the secrets. Rey looks at him and sighs.

"Did you know before we landed?"

"The probability was very high they would betray us."

"This is an ambush," she states.

"They intend that," he is not nervous.

"Does this require reinforcements?"

"That would encourage them to kill hostages. We should hit them before they realize they've lost the advantage. Are you ready?"

He knows the idea of charging headfirst into a dangerous building where they will be shot at and attacked is not something she is _anxious_ for, but she did agree to follow him. She opens her senses and to him. He can synchronize her actions to his. They move forward and he draws the fire while she takes down the attackers. She is lethal in her methods, but circumstances require fast and decisive action. She understands Kylo is protecting her and it allows her to drive fearlessly into the fray.

She leaps the crude barricade that covers the steps leading to the second story. He follows. They move with care along the next flight of stairs. He restrains her before they clear the corner.

"Take down the video feeds?"

"How?" she asks.

He gives her an impatient glare. She's burnt through enough mechanics in his room to keep the droids fully busy each day. Rey realizes what he's asking and it feels odd to uncork the effect on demand. He knows when she's done it, though.

The Red Arm is willing to go in a hail of glory. They have taken a school full of hostages and locked them in a large assembly room on the second floor. They are angry and single-minded enough to suicide. It is a miracle this has not deteriorated already. The leader who dictated their demands is locked inside the room waiting for any hint that things have gone badly. They hope to broadcast footage of them holding the emissary of the Supreme Leader. It has taken them by surprise to discover he has not sent an underling.

"Behind me until we get to the door and decide how to breach."

As he gets there he sends his senses ahead and Rey keeps the rear guard so they are not flanked. He feeds her his reconnaissance. They regroup.

"Take my sabre," he tells her, handing it over. She passes her weapon to him. "I will freeze the trigger man and you will go at the remaining hostage takers and put them down. I will put hostages under as needed so they cannot serve as shields. We have to do this in quick sequence or they will adapt their tactics.

"Should you take out the hostage takers and I hold the man?"

"Can you do it reliably?"

"Maybe," she hedges and then shakes her head. It is a small action to activate the trigger that will set the room into a blazing inferno. "No." She admits her limitation. "Why not drop the triggerman?"

"If he drops the others will try to take control of the weapon. Stopping one is easy, even two, but if it turns to a free for all or they have a destruct failsafe, then the bomb goes off. If he's frozen they may not realize he's immobile. It gives you the opening to lay them out."

It is strange to feel the grip of his sabre. Longer than the hilt of her broken one, it is made to suit him. His long frame and reach. Still, it is an elegant weapon and by wielding it, she will be the focal point as they open the door. He is relying on her speed. He drops several hostages and locks down the man with the trigger as she launches forward.

A few Red Arm men quickly recover and fire blasters at her. She is catching the bolts with the sizzling blade. It crackles as she leaps up and smashes her first arching blow that cuts through the man and his neighbor like butter. She is rolling as she lands and as she comes up and takes face on the next opponent she charges forward. She is moving at them aggressively and from behind her she hears the crash but reaches with her senses rather than break her concentration. Kylo has launched the staff she traded him in a hurtling throw that has knocked back a man who would fire on her back. More hostages have wilted from what she assumes are Ren's efforts.

With the remainder of the hostage takers dead on the ground the triggerman is no longer just frozen. Kylo Ren is choking the man unconscious. Rey panics that he is killing the man in rage, but when he is out cold the grip drops, and he lands in a heap on the floor. Her targets are dead, but this man and the man at the door have survived. He looks at her and nods. She hands back his weapon and collects hers where it landed.

"Do you know how to disable this bomb?" he asks her.

Considering the crude wiring and design, she nods and goes to the back and pulls loose wires. There is another set of wiring that give her pause.

"There's another activator."

"Is this still dangerous?"

"No, I unhooked the detonator. It was effective but not sophisticated. There is another trigger somewhere."

She opens her senses and begins walking slowly amidst the hostages until she stops at the unconscious form of a skinny boy. His hair is unkempt, his clothing is patched up second hand."

"Those boots are newer than anything else he owns," Kylo comments. "Same make as the hostage takers. He's a plant."

"He's a child," she amends, but all the same as she searches his pocket she finds the switch mechanism.

Kylo hoists the child over his shoulder and summons support troops to come clear the hostages and mop up. He walks back down and as they are exiting he passes the local commander who is leading his people into the place. Kylo appreciates that the man sees to his duties rather than stop to talk to him. Local leaders fall over themselves to be seen in his company and he finds the ingratiating attempts irritating.

Kylo has the door greeter and the triggerman locked into separate interrogation chairs in separate rooms. He wants to do this to the boy, too, but Rey shakes her head and sets him on an exam table. The commander finds him and reports back the numbers because the First Order appreciates numbers.

"You can stay while I interrogate these three. It will save time exchanging reports."

Kylo makes fast work of the two men. Their guns and resources were windfall from a Resistance expansion effort. Local malcontents who might stir up trouble were being outfitted. Rey blanches to discover this, but it is no surprise to Kylo Ren. This world was far from the edges of the battle line and stable. The average citizen had no great call to rebel.

When they get to the boy he motions to her. "Question him, Petra. Be thorough."

She releases the trigger that is keeping him asleep and as he comes around she kindly strokes back his hair like a nurse. When the boy spots Kylo Ren his face drains of all color and he reaches frantically for his pocket and the trigger.

"We found it already," she let him know. "Who gave it to you?"

She is patient and soft spoken, but presses. The boy cracks within moments. He launches himself into her arms and sobs the whole bitter story. His family is poor and he is a charity case within this building. He was marked by the gang and his father's livelihood was threatened if he didn't sign onto the gang and participate. If he dies the gang will give his family 200 units of credit and hold a memorial naming him a hero of the Red Arm.

"What happens next for him?" She asks. Her face is towards the local commander, but the question is for both men. Kylo Ren lets the other man go first.

"He is a terrorist and must be punished. We separate children from adults in our prison."

"How long will he be confined?"

"Until he is rehabilitated," the man hedges. Kylo understands there is no program to rehabilitate the boy. It is a lifetime sentence if he cannot bribe his way out.

"His circumstances made him vulnerable to the Red Arm. We'll remove him from this place and this influence. It will no longer be your concern."

"Sir," the local man nods. "As you require."

"Would you rather be responsible for him?" Kylo asks.

"No sir," he shakes his head. The First Order is notoriously hard edged, but nothing about how the boy was treated spoke to turning him into a cautionary example for others. The commander is skeptical, but trusts his eyes. "This event has created public outrage and they will call for blood. I cannot promise the boy would survive in my prison."

"No you can't."

Rey wants to understand what Kylo has really proposed, but she knows she must be his obedient apprentice in the company of others. The boy looks terrified of Kylo Ren. His apprentice takes the boy by the hand and led him to the command shuttle.

"Tell me more about the weapons recovered?" Kylo Ren asks as he unfastens the mask.

Describing the smuggling operation. It isn't sustained, but of late the criminal elements have found off-world benefactors. It doesn't surprise Kylo Ren, but he thinks his adversaries ought to feel the bite of poorly choosing their allies. The Red Arm was not dedicated to the Resistance. Unsavory bastards that they were, they'd tried to turn.

"How long have you been in your post?"

"Eight years, sir."

"Very good," he concludes the session. "Carry on."

"Thank you, Supreme Leader," he gives the bow that is the choreography of officers.

Returning to the command shuttle he holds back Rey's questions indicating they need to be alone. He watches her hand on the boys shoulder. She feels responsible for him. The boy does not want to be separated from her, either. She is decompensating with kindness to this child after enacting violence, even necessary violence, within the school.

"Sir, why do you wear that mask? Is it because of your scar?" the boy asks.

There is a collective gulp in the people around them.

"I wear it to scare people. Does it work?" He answers simply.

"Yes," he nods emphatically.

Rey's expression warms when she sees this answer doesn't frighten him. She thinks Kylo, might be trying to intimidate the boy, but instead witnesses the unexpected opposite reaction.

"The voice sounds cool when you wear it," he volunteers. The ghost of a smile the drifts lightens the mood.

"Itran, explain to our young enlistee about Pertensk IV and what he should expect when he arrives there. Take down any message he wants returned to his parents. Have the message analyzed by Intelligence and cryptography before it is passed on. If there is any hint that his family is involved in his crimes inform the local Commander so they can be arrested."

Rey will listen to this exchange, because she does not know what Pertensk IV is or why Kylo thinks this will serve. For all she knows it is a different prison. He's wavering between that image of the terrifying dark lord and what she suspects is closer to his true self before Snoke. She names this other side. _Ben_. She has not used that name since the throne room. He rejected casting off Kylo Ren in that moment and she uses his name to remind herself.

A/N: Plot is interfering with smut. I didn't expect that when I started posting chapters. I thought I was practically done when I started uploading and then the story gremlins interceded and rewrites happen. Next chapter, promise.


	13. Chapter 13 - Hope

CHAPTER 13 - HOPE

Ever the task master, he doesn't let the activities on Dossaides interrupt their routine once they return to the command ship.

She is reluctant to be pulled away from her new charge but Itran has promised to see him taken care of and supervised. He will even deliver the boy personally to Pertensk IV. It is a chance for Itran to renew old associations within the training facility. Kylo has his own reasons for wanting members of his team to have ties in places like Pertensk. For Rey's purposes, though, she can mistake it for kindness to this wayward boy.

Kylo needs to wash and change clothing. The mask has made his scalp and hair damp and his skin a bit sticky. He thinks he would have felt it if she was struck during the exchanges, but combat sometimes drives overriding focus. The mind ignores those blows that will not impair action. He asks her to join him as he washes up. He's too brisk and off-hand.

Her lighter eyes meet his. She senses this doesn't begin with him wanting sex and that makes her eyebrow arch.

"I want to make sure you are all right," he explains.

"You could ask," she points out.

"I'd rather check," he debates how to play this and opts to reveal other considerations. "I want to get my hands on you and we don't have a lot of time. This economizes two activities."

"Economizes?"

The temperature drop in her tone should warn him to stop, but he's focused on the remaining daily priorities.

"We have our next training session, you have to work with Dahl, I have reports to review..."

Rey's irritation fires. "That's a lot to do. Clearly no time for personal indulgence. I'm fine." She spins on her heels and walks to her room and shuts the door.

Kylo Ren watches her retreat and replays the last minutes in his mind. It's as if she's sand that ran through his fingers. He figures his ask recalled too much of when he forced her participation. He wheels in frustration and goes to clean up, alone.

Rey's performance during the mission showed her fighting skills were improving. Her mental focus during the interludes between combat reassured him that she was beginning to realize the values of focus and discipline. She is quickly prepared. She says nothing further about refusing his request. When they arrive the brothers greet politely, but warmly.

"No worse for the public dining experience?" one of them asks her.

"What?" she doesn't understand. "It wasn't spoiled."

"But far cry from the edibles you've been enjoying," he mentions, and she thinks on this and nods. Kylo Ren is silently swearing about this but in full agreement. "Takes a stomach a little time to conquer chef's offerings."

Rey hasn't had the luxury of comparing her meals so she shrugs. "Food is food. I didn't think much about it."

The brothers look at her and don't know how to take that other than she isn't lording her better options over them. They step back because it is clear that today will start fast and go hard. Kylo drives them through forms of knife combat and it uses blunted devices while they practice, but real ones at the end when Kylo and Rey face off.

When they finish up the separation is brief. The two, again, take meal in the mess hall. It is just as unexpected as the first time and when the Chef waddles over with their dishes Kylo turns to him and asks some pointed questions.

"How many meals does your service prepare each day?"

The man provides a very exact figure. Doubtless well practiced in the reporting required.

"Do you also oversee the meals prepared for officers?"

"They have a facility on another level. I supervise the cooking and service staff," he clarifies.

"What portion of the food stores are used to operate this kitchen?"

The percentage is very exactly correct, but he rephrases. "What portion of the funds are spent to operate this facility?" The figure tilts wildly in favor of the Commander's kitchen.

"Redistribute the materials on hand to make the apportionment match the level of need. Going forward sustain the ration for procurement to align with the meals prepared. I expect the figures to match."

This makes the man nod and wheels turn in his head and he doesn't have to be suggested into leaving this time. He excuses himself.

"What did you just do?" Petra asks.

The MX-brother pipes up. "He just told the old guy to raid the officer's kitchen for supplies."

"I removed a privilege my officers have been enjoying," Kylo Ren reasserted.

"Just like that," the man's emphasis implies he is pleased by the decision. "Can you imagine if the Princess-General of the Resistance ever had to dine with her rebel soldiers," he jumps topics unexpectedly.

"She doesn't dine with anyone, anymore," another brother reminds. "She was killed in action."

"She survived," Rey reflexively corrects.

The entire table goes silent and stares at her. She misses it at first and then senses Kylo Ren's hard mental admonition to say nothing further. He has covered his shock, but he didn't know this either.

"The hell she did," the man refutes. "The bridge was blown up. All their officers became space drift. Leader Ren lead the attack."

"Oh," she looks between them and walks back her statement clumsily.

"We have to go," Kylo Ren would have liked to wait until the topic has changed but he abandons that approach.

"You can never do that again," he snaps at her. "Never volunteer information about the Resistance unless you want to be strapped in a chair and interrogated until your teeth fall out."

"I didn't think," she is trying to explain, diminish what she spilled. "I'm sorry. How could you not know?"

"I felt it hit, I felt her spark failing." He is forced to recall that he shut it out as he saw the trajectory of the event. He closed himself off to the pain.

"She was the only survivor from the bridge explosion. She was in a coma for hours, but she recovered," Rey opens her mind to him to share the image of a shared conversation after the battle.

It hits Kylo Ren hard: the surprise, the relief, the guilt. He has resigned himself to being the architect of their deaths. He has formed a sense of self that was alone without family. His rage towards his mother has soften since he thought her dead, a sort of sentimental reconsideration. Now his understanding is upended.

Rey feels his distress and reacts to the man in front of her. Her arms slide around him and she holds tight. He feels strangled at first, unused to physical offers of comfort, but when he accepts her actions, he sinks into her.

"My mother is alive?"

"Yes," Rey repeats, then adds.

She knows the rough framework of how his childhood went, but not the last conversation Kylo had with his father. He's been holding it tight inside for so long that as he lets her see it he fears what she will do with this new information. Rey cries as she lives it from his eyes. She loved Han Solo, despite knowing him only a brief time. She feels the loss of him, and the horror of seeing him struck. She asked Kylo why and he'd given her dogma as a response. Petulant howling of a rabid dog. Nonsense about killing the past so he could become something new.

"I thought I hated him, Rey. I thought he caused my suffering, and I was trying to prove myself to Snoke. I took his life and I cannot undo it."

Her eyes are golden in color, not dark as his are. A random coincidence that completely fits her. He scans her afraid to try and delve her because he cannot handle if she withdraws. He's afraid of it and afraid that no amount of lies will guard him from what he's done. He pushes forward even as it jeopardizes the peace they've made. He aspired to become the kind of monster who wouldn't care and was forced to recognize remorse had arrived and he must confront it.

His apprentice guides him to a chair and quietly holds him while his mind tumbles on his actions and the regrets accumulated. She sooths him with her calm and reassurance. She can offer no solutions, but her steadfastness anchors him as these choices and consequences lash his mind.

"You were right when you called me a monster," he says after a long time.

"You agreed with me," she reminds him. "But I don't see you that way, now."

"I don't want to be one anymore," he admits.

"Then don't," she admonishes him. "You haven't for some time. Resolve to let that part go."

"Just cut it free," he feels she oversimplifies.

"Just as you told me. Let go of the past. Do not be held back by it."

His words echoing back are bitter pill. "It would be easier if my mother was not alive to see it."

Rey weighs her words carefully. "She knows what happened. What would she rather see?" Rey lays out two options: "You continue to be like the man who killed his father, or that you regained your light and seek to be a better person."

He gives a hopeless huff. "Just like that."

"Is there a third option?"

"No," he admits. "This is binary. I am either dark or light."

"Maybe not that kind of totality," Rey reasons. "Maybe just someone who admits his failure and seeks to make amends." She further explains. "Light and Dark are unforgiving in their positons. I'm not sure we are meant to always have to be one or the other."

"You stay within the light," he prods.

Rey wags a finger at him. "Better than anyone, you know that is untrue. That I struck out at you and others with rage. That I lie to protect myself. I'm selfish and guarded. I have spent two days afraid to tell you I love you even though I'm certain."

Her words continue to surprise him this night and she maybe works to overcome his skepticism by saying them without the other subject matter surrounding the point. She is studying his face. Her heart open and hopeful.

/&&&&&&&&&&/

 _~Focus.~_ He prods her again.

Rey is supposed to be balancing and lifting objects. She's less enamored of this practice than he likes. It's tedious, but if she becomes facile at the practice she can manage things like freeze a combatant and fight her way across a room and shove objects about. Lifting objects is wrapping the energies around them and pulling upwards. It isn't limited by physical size or reach, which she is getting used to. She's doing this in their rooms while he works at his desk on other First Order matters.

The first brush he thinks is self-inflicted. His scattered mind lurching to thoughts of sex that precede an erection. Then he dissects and recognizes he's mentally elsewhere and not wandering that territory. The next featherlike stroke along his cock claims all his full attention immediately. He shoots a sharp look and her eyes are closed and she's managing the seven other items and balancing herself…and the hint of a smile as she concentrates answers his unasked question.

 _~Think you can continue this practice and get me off?~_

 _~Not sure,~_ her mental shrug. _~Are you telling me to stop?~_

The obvious answer is to stop her and reprimand. It's what Luke….and that is probably why he does the exact opposite. Why she wants to play this way is beyond him, but he ought to at least make a challenge.

 _~Keep going,~_ he offers. _~If it goes well, I'll see how you manage when I distract you.~_

He sits back. Her touch isn't hampered by barriers of clothing or distance. He purrs as she stirs the nerves along his sensitive genitals. Stroking his balls, lightly lifting them, snaking a tendril of contact from the base to his tip. As he hardens fully he loosens his clothing, and frees himself from the constrictions.

He steels a glance, making sure she's sustaining the rest of the exercise and damned if she isn't. Everything is floating, stable, even her balance is calm and perfect. It isn't perfect sexual exchange. This isn't mutual sharing. He's not touching or urging her, but he is receiving her attention in a way she hasn't offered it before.

"Your touch feels good, Rey," he admits as another stroke elicits sparks along his spine.

Kylo restrains the temptation to direct her. If she followed his path it would be a short, sharp, jerk. Leaving it to her approach is freeing. Rey's inclined to tease this out. Before long she's gotten the kind of mental handle, so to speak, where she is giving him multiple kinds of press, pull, stroke simultaneously. The tempo and type of touch transitions to what he needs. She brings him off with a long groan of pleasure. As the sound escapes several items strike the floor. He can't care about that.

Faster than she thinks he should be able, he turns the tables back on her. He's had long moments while she played to dream up what his response will be and he's looking forward to returning in kind.


	14. Chapter 14 - Past is Prologue

Chapter 14 – PAST IS PROLOGUE

Meditating and daily reflection of the harbinger of Rey's dream are not enough.

The council is convening and he has entered the chambers at the same time amidst the seat finding shuffle. Kylo Ren brushes past Havath Nosskum's immense form and General Kabbedies calls to get his attention. The happening grates his senses, because formality of the sessions do not lend to spontaneous audience. It is the corner of Ren's eye that sees Nosskum jerk backwards and fall into the chair which gives a metal shriek as the supports fail. The glimpse of the grimacing smile send ice through his veins.

Sennec stumbles into the path as the hand moves to descend on Kylo Ren's person and as it connects with his aide's back. Sennec's expression contorts with the sudden burning pain. Kylo Ren's response is reflexive. The sabre is in his palm and activated in less than a breath and the hand that would find his person is severed and on the ground.

Rey has realized that touching Kabbedies is ill advised but even as the Smiling Poisoner is shrinking back cradling the stump remaining she closes. Her extraction of the staff from her back is fluid and almost elegant as she uses it to both pin and sustain her distance. Kabbedies fumbles for the blaster at his hip and it is shaking violently as he aims at the Leader, redoubling his efforts. Rey shifts the position of the staff and jabs a bundle of nerves that force his arm to go numb and it falls. Then the doomed man succumbs to the poison he has carried into the space. He turns grey and writhes in agony before gasping into stillness.

Kylo Ren has stooped to Sennec's side but the chemicals work too quickly to intercede and there is nothing he can do to save the man. He grinds his teeth as he rises. His guards have closed and formed a perimeter pushing most of the onlookers to one wall and barring the exit. The other military commanders are gaping in stunned silence.

"That's two, Rey. There is one more attempt."

Cycling through what cryptic things Rey's vision conveyed, he rounds on the man still floundering on the floor. Not a victim of poison…victim of gravity. _Havath Nosskum_ _pulled away_. Havath Nosskum knew before anyone else what was coming. He pivots abruptly to this threat. When the weapon discharges the bolt slices into Kylo Ren's arm before he drops the arc of his freshly relit sabre onto the man.

"Three," Rey pronounces.

Kylo is standing before her and her heart is in her eyes. He isn't going to fall. It burns, but he's taken worse. They collectively release a breath.

Reinforcements do not fully know all that has conspired. Rather than outline the event, Kylo has his entire command taken into custody. He'll sort out the conspirators in his own time.

"You were right," Rey wants to say more but he silences her.

No need to enlighten those around them she was his oracle. He assesses his situation. He knows the soldiers in the room. They have trained with Rey. He trusts their loyalty and support. He is relieved. He is not surprised an attack came from within the command, but that hardly dulls the anger. Rey is afraid, but his rage builds.

"Sir," the storm trooper presents himself.

The soldier is trained for combat including dealing with shock. He is loath to assign that to his Leader, but he sees the wound and the smell of burnt skin and fabric. This person is trained for combat medicine and is offering to tend him, even if he has not conveyed that intention.

"See to Sennec," the Supreme Leader growls. "The wound on him is some kind of poison. Do not touch it. Have the examiners determine what it is. He will be given military rights after. The other two will not. Kabbedies also has the same poison. Search his chambers, all his possessions. _NOW_. Search Nosskum's. When you are done investigating them, incinerate the bodies."

"Yes, sir," the man jerks to rigid salute in response to the towering anger of the leader. He quickly signals his fellows and they begin the work.

It is Rey who braves the uncompromising waves of seething anger to step into his space and make him sit as she peels back the burnt fibers and cuts the sleeve so she can assess the wound. She says nothing and even her thoughts have calmed and are just a pulse of reassurance and relief. She tends him with brisk and not entirely sensitive efforts. He wills himself to ignore the injury.

"Where are Itran and Benish?"

"Taken to the brig with the others," she informs.

Kylo Ren shakes his head and then orders the nearest soldier to go and retrieve them.

"What do you need me to do?"

"We need to summon the MX brothers and their squads. The troops nearest to us must be trustworthy." He softly tells her. "This coup came from the highest levels of my command. We don't know how deep it goes, yet."

Kylo Ren's skin is crawling with the sense his command ship is infested. "We're going to the shuttle bay. Prepare my ship."

As the group enters the bay there is a shuttle landing. Flight traffic is routine but as the doors open the pale haired officer that emerges jolts him. This should not be happening. General Hux is stepping from the ramp. Neither expected to confront the other at this moment. It is not coincidence that Armitage Hux is arriving unannounced at this moment. Kylo Ren instantly recognizes his hand in what has transpired.

Hux is being followed by two ranks of Stormtroopers. He shouts orders just as Kylo Ren is recognizing the hostile nature of the arrivals. Banking on the gravity of his rank and position, and refusing to show fear to the General who would usurp him, Kylo Ren stands fast and the MX brothers reading the situation signal orders to their members who spread out and draw down on their fellows. Rey draws her knives and positions just ahead of him to the side. She is not in his line of fire but ready to defend. Her stance lowers and he has the impression of a cat ready to pounce.

Hux's force outnumbers theirs but they are bunched together on the ramp and have no cover or egress unless the go back aboard the shuttle which would trap them. The shuttle was a crew carrier and poor choice. It has some armoring, but what little armaments it possesses will not operate in the landed position. Hux flinches and refocuses his attention to Rey.

"Rebel scum," he decries as his eyes land on Rey. "Seize her."

His squad is confused by the change of target and as they move against her, Kylo Ren roars. "Halt. Surrender and you'll live."

"She killed Supreme Commander Snoke." Hux's voice breaks in a register that is high and unhinged.

Rey launches at him and the man lurches backwards and hits the edge of the ramp stumbling to his knees. When one of the soldiers attempts to counter her attack, a blast from behind her takes the soldier in the gun arm. It wounds him terribly, but doesn't kill. The others are frozen.

Hux draws and fires five wild shots hitting air. He has lost sight of her and flails about seeking her. He squeezes the gun trigger twice more, desperately. His reflexes are no match for her. Another of his soldiers bolsters his nerve and he also is sent to the ground by the patient and disciplined guard behind the Supreme Leader.

"Stand up, General Hux," Rey toys with him, very much fulfilling the cat aspects. Her hand twitches and he feels her lift him off the ground. She almost sets him on his feet, but not quite and the suspension is unnerving. He is twisting as he gropes to find ground.

By now additional troops are responding and the MX-brothers are directing their positioning, taking field command while never stepping away from their leader. Kylo Ren's rage is boiling and even without sensitivity, they are aware. The shuttle of the marauders is buckling and crushing like a can. The soldiers only halfway out push their fellows forward to escape the collapsing hull. Rey loses grip and Hux tumbles. He uses the others as cover while he tries to scramble away.

"Rey, finish him," Kylo orders. "There is no place in the Order for mutineers."

"Yes, Master," she stalks through the white clad soldiers. Pushing them aside with her mind as she closes the distance. When Hux tries again to fire on her she feints and looses both knives. They bury deep into his chest and he falls.

The disarray of Hux's squads make them distinguishable from the other patrols hat arrive, all the same Kylo orders helmets removed. The MX-Brothers demand those involved are taken to the Brig to join the council behind cell walls.

The dark hawkish command shuttle ramp lowers and he issues onto it. Rey doesn't wait for any shuttle pilots to present themselves. She begins taking control of the processes for departure. Kylo Ren growls to the command deck and then as Benish and Itran arrive he closes the doors and the vessel lifts off the deck.

"Where are we going?" Rey asks.

"Takodana," he tells her.

Programming the vessel it quickly jumps to light speed away from his command vessel. As Rey pilots Kylo Ren divulges the happenings to those present.

"Members of the Military Council conspired to assassinate me. Their efforts failed utterly. I will be interrogating the council verify who are involved. These actions were orchestrated by General Hux."

"Why are we leaving the command ship?" Itran asks, with clear voice and head bowed in deference to his Leader.

"I want a secure position to purge the ship of the elements that undermined the Order," Kylo said evenly.

"Is the ship in hostile hands?"

"No," he says evenly. "The First Order is not overtaken by a handful of overreaching officers. The power of the Order is its subjects who understand their alliance."

"To you," Itran emphasizes.

"To the principles of the Order. I am leader, but we are all serving the greater purpose."

This is a risk. The First Order has always been cultishly formed around the central figure. He has even used that aspect for his own consolidation of control, but it embeds hostility and makes ambition a weapon not an asset. He needs to reform the Order as a collective purpose and these are the first people other than Rey to hear him articulate that. The men absorb this and Itran and Benish may have been recognizing this shifting emphasis, but he is keenly observing how they handle the change.

"Is Petra, Rey?" Benish asks. "General Hux said she's the Resistance fighter."

To lie or not. Rey has been given credit, by his own tongue, for Snoke's death. It does not paint a good picture. On the other hand, he knows the truth won't die with a denial. He's called her Rey in front of them.

"Petra is Rey," he confirms.

"Did she kill Supreme Leader Snoke at your request?" Benish has plucked up more nerve than most and he'd like to drive it into the ground but it is time to start allowing reason to guide.

"No," he corrected. "She fought for her life and escaped."

Not a full recounting, but accurate. Few enough are aware who was where during that event.

"Has she defected to the Order?" The MX Brothers join the questioning.

"No," she walks forward from the command deck, having engaged the autopilot. "I did not defect. I am not fighting for the Resistance at this point, either. Master Ren is the last Jedi. I require his teaching. I swore oath to obey him during my apprenticeship."

"Sith," Itran corrects.

"Unless you have capabilities I am unaware of, you do not know the difference between Sith and Jedi. I do." She is aping his bravado. Kylo senses her unease.

Kylo hears her declare him Jedi and it comes closer to truth than he expects. He is not perfectly Jedi, but the other holds even less relationship to his present state. He loves her. He is willing to repurpose the First Order as something other than an autocratic tool for amassing power. He still has anger and darkness, but it doesn't countermand his judgement at every turn.

"I am the last Jedi," he asserts and it ripples through him as he claims it.

"What is next, Leader Ren," the MX brother asks.

The soldier's assertion that Ren is still leader is reflected in the expectant looks turned his way. Rey's presence is explained if not fully understood and the military norms do not require them to assess further or agree. It is not a large contingent, but he believes each of these, to a man is capable and can be trusted.

"I need to raise Maz before we arrive, so we are not met by gunfire," Kylo determines. "Benish, I need you to stay in contact with the Command Ship. Keep it settled, provide commands. Relay any disturbance from regular operations."

"Yes sir," he nods. "What of the brig full of commanders?"

"The guards are to keep them confined. Have security conduct initial investigation and compile the information for use during interrogation. We'll determine their situations one by one under questioning. Give me updates regarding Nosskum, Kabbedies and Sennec's exams."

Maz Kanata is not thrilled when his communication opens on her screen. She isn't cowed by First Order tactics and has no intention to greet them as welcome guests. He plays a card that startles her.

"Will you allow Ben Solo to land?"

"Kiddo," she frowns to hear him invoke that name. "What are you playing at? I know what you've done."

"I know you do, Maz. I know you have no reason to trust me. But I need neutral ground. I need to reach out to family and cannot expect them to visit the Finalizer."

"You surely cannot," the woman agrees. "Is this a trick?"

He gives a lopsided grin at her obvious question. "I would lie to you if it was, but it's not."

"I'd know you lied," she points out.

Kylo Ren's lifespan is a brief in her eyes, but he met her as a child. Maz is someone his father had always trusted and relied upon. He sees value in those traits. Her nose for truth is uncanny, regardless of origin.

"I cannot claim we're unarmed, but we are not seeking confrontation. Tell your guests we're coming, if you must. They can decide for themselves if they want to depart."

"That's a lot of liquor sales I won't be making." Ever practical.

"The Order will provide a supplemental landing fee as reimbursement for accommodating our needs." While he's at it he negotiates rooms and other required facilities.

When they land the petite matron of the pirate hold comes to meet him personally. Uncharacteristically, the Supreme Leader drops to a knee and hugs her. Their estrangement over, he is willing to admit he's missed her. The older woman fusses over him after the greeting and worries at the mark of his injury.

Then she sees Rey and the grin grows wider. "It's you," she decides instantly. "His return is your doing."

"I assure you I had nothing to do about our destination."

"Not what I'm talking about at all," the old woman corrects.

Then she whisks them inside and to the places he's arranged. The repaired remnants of the caste are so far removed from the sharp edges and shiny surfaces of the command ship. Maz does more than Rey managed treating Kylo's burned arm.

"Who's been shooting at you, Knight of Ren?" Maz prods.

"Dealing with an uprising within my command ranks. I will have it settled shortly," he assures with as little concern as though the wall color was being updated.

Maz squints and then nods and flips her attention to Rey.

"What about Luke?"

"He died," she answered plainly. "I needed to go to Ben."

"He's changed since last time I saw him," she points out. "You've done something to him."

"The change is his own."

"Are you sure?"

"I am sure he would do this whether I was with him or not," she affirms. "He is the last Jedi. When I complete my apprenticeship, I will not become one. The old orders are finished."

"Maybe he'll join you in whatever you become," Maz speculates.

"Maybe," Rey answers

Kylo Ren feels Rey's unease at Maz's intense inspection. She is revisiting her actions as she stalked and killed Hux, and regretting her cruelty. She'd considered leaving him incapacitated for future questioning, but Kylo's command had sealed the General's fate. Maybe she should have questioned it, but she been eager to carry it out. It was dishonorable.

"Hux was dishonorable," Kylo tells her softly, having read her remorse. "He was weak and vicious. There was no chance he could face you on the field. I should have handled him so you didn't have to."

"I'm your knife hand," she reminds. "Protector. I didn't do very well today. We're displaced. You're wounded. And what do you mean calling family?"

He isn't ready to reveal that more broadly. There are few enough who know what family remains to him and it's a fraught idea likely to blow apart his world even further. He squeezes and tries to dislodge her anxiety. He doesn't separate when Maz clears her throat to remind them of her continued presence.

"You have a lot to answer for, young man. You killed Han."

"I killed Han," he has the tick of referring to his father by name rather than relationship.

Maz stands there, hands on her hips. She is a small, but potent bundle of distress. She both loves him and hates what he's done. He takes a shaky breath inward and centers himself. Disillusionment, sorrow, overwhelming feelings will not communicate, and he has to say something.

"I was so angry," he shows his palms as if the emptiness of them should mean he's let it go. "I was stupid and angry."

There should be more. It feels ridiculously short. There is more to it, but nothing else is important. Nothing else that preceded led to his act of killing his father. Anger and stupidity are what it reduces to and it is not enough to justify what he did.

His famously glacial regard for the feelings of others has undergone drastic changes. He flashes the feel of his father's hand on his cheek before he fell. The same cheek that Rey slashed minutes later in the forest. He can't wipe out the remembrance of his father's last forlorn act of forgiveness. In the end his father had risen above his limitations to reach out to him and he'd answered with anger. Rey wants to comfort him but he warns her to let this exchange with Maz carry to its conclusion. This is a pale test compared to the next round and he has no time to prepare or repair the damage. She stays and witnesses.

"I'm sorry Maz. I'm sorry, Rey. There's nothing else I can offer for the hurt I've caused you both."

Rey wasn't owed further apology. These reminders fester, but the wound is slowly healing. Maz comes forward, scrambles onto the table surface and still has to reach. She thumps his head in an action that is more startling than painful. "Foolish child," she grumbles. Then she embraces him. He accepts her arms and surrenders to the judgement she's issued.

"Pretty sure I'm eligible for a punishment more severe than a pat on the head," he tells her.

"It isn't for me to do," the Pirate tells him. "Maybe your mother."

"Maybe Leia," his gaze is watery, but he withholds the tears.

"She's coming," he's informed as Maz recovers her own brisk manners. "You'd better get ready."

"Sack cloth and ashes I suppose." He doesn't know what to do.

"Clean up. Eat some food, and don't get drunk." All solidly mundane but useable advice.

"Do you want a job in the First Order?" he asks off hand. The older woman scowls at him. "I have openings, at least five in leadership. You can see the galaxy."

The frown morphs into a chuckle and she walks away. Rey comes to him. She brushes back the hair that drifted forward on his face. "I'm getting Itran and Benish back in here to talk to the ship. They can handle it. Do as Maz suggests."

It's too much energy to think of other reasons he should defer his own needs. He nods.

This is more measured than Snoke would have done. His old master would have burned down the corps, destroyed the ship, and presided over the hellfire.

A/N Thank you to those who shared comments under reviews. I appreciate the feedback/encouragement. Those who are following/favoriting, help. I am trying to learn by what parts draw out reactions. Next chapter is written, but not ready. I will try to get it hammered into shape but it might not be tomorrow.


	15. Chapter 15 - Offer

Chapter 15 – Offer

The last 12 hours have shaken the foundations of his world and he's about to collide his past straight into his present. The thought of this alone is exhausting. He wavers and then the horizon unexpectedly tilts wildly and his slow moving mind thinks. This is odd.

"Whoa," Rey's use of the force to supplement her balance are the only things that keep her from being overturned as she catches his listing weight. She yelps for help and Benish and Andros respond.

"I'm all right," he claims.

"Right," she strains and Benish steps to his other side and helps her prop him upright.

"Adrenaline has worn off," the Mx-brothers offers as he helps guide them to a quiet spot where he can lay back. "He's feeling the blaster hit, now."

"It's been hours," Rey is worried it's a delayed reaction to the poison.

"Yes," he is unperturbed by her time estimate. "I can call a medical droid to assess if you insist."

"You're sure?" she asks. Kylo is wrung out and as they set him on the cot, he lays back. Andros smiles encouragingly to Rey to convey that this fits his expectation.

"Happened my first combat injury. My brothers were beside themselves with panic. I knocked out for nine whole hours and woke up so hungry I could have eaten a Nurf."

"I don't know what a Nurf is," she admits."

"Might technically be edible, but there's a reason it isn't kept as livestock," he describes. "He needs to rest."

"His mother is coming," Rey's nerves get away from her. Kylo would swat her down for disgorging details, but he's already asleep.

"Kylo Ren's mother is coming here?" The man whistles. "I can hardly imagine what that will be like."

"You really can't," Rey collects herself and thinks of what to do next. Andros departs.

Benish has followed them to the place and lights into a chair nearby, but she can't bring herself to release Kylo's hand. She sits at the end beside him.

"You're really the Rebellion Force master that helped them escape on Crait?"

"How do you know that?" she asks.

"It's my job to know things," he shrugs.

"I'm not a _master._ That's why I asked for Kylo to teach me."

"Why didn't he kill you?" the man asks. "Jedi pomp and practice aside, you killed Snoke."

Rey decides it is not time to correct the record. "I was fighting to live. Snoke wanted me dead."

"There were praetorians," Benish pointed out. "All elite trained soldiers who were capable of resisting force mind manipulation." He's building up to something and Rey doesn't slow him down. "I've seen you train and fight. You're very good, but not so good you could strike down all those opponents without help."

Rey sees he's already connected Kylo Ren to her escape. "I…" the man held up a hand.

"I don't care, Petra/Rey, whatever you want to call yourself. I don't regret Snoke's demise. I don't want to live in a bloody, glorious, goose-stepping, empire. I never would have imagined Kylo Ren's ascent could be a moment of hope. He is not his predecessor. I am not afraid for our future under his command." With that the officer rises and offers a nod. "Call if you need anything. I'll be at my post."

He steps outside the room and leaves the door open a crack. Rey looks back at Kylo's slumbering form and eases down beside him. He's warm, breathing, with a steady heartbeat. She knows no other qualities to check for. Benish has offered her something unexpected. She'd imagined those serving in the First Order were fanatical followers. She finds her own eyelids growing heavy but her eyes opening.

/&&&/

"Wake up, Rey," he softly commands.

"I'm awake," she jerks from sleep and would be up but his hands hold her close.

"We're…" she's disoriented and then the memories flood back at her. "Is everything all right?" she asks.

"I think so," he tells her. He's stretched out his senses and does not sense anger or fear. At least no more than the usual quantity.

"I think it was Andros," she refers to the MX brother that helped her get him here. "He says you'll be hungry."

Ben gives a half-hearted laugh. "No time for that." He is shaking in a way she's never known him to. "She's here. I can feel her."

"She can feel you, too?"

"Yeah," he admits.

They lay there quietly and she feels him gathering his energies. She holds him wishing she could lend her strength.

"You scared me for a few minutes," she tells him.

"Sorry," he tells her. He shifts and faces her and lets his forehead rest against hers. "I have to get used to saying that."

"I'm sure once might convey the point to her," Rey gently smiles.

"Some things deserve to be said more than once," he heavily intones. "I love you, Rey."

The words stop her heart for a moment and then she feels the flush rise into her cheeks and the fluttering in her stomach. She sighs like she's been holding her breath since everything started. He kisses her deeply, slowly sweetly. When he finishes he says it, again, against her lips like a prayer.

"I love you, too."

He pushes up and starts to straighten himself out.

"Which name?" she asks him.

"We're talking to Leia. Probably the name she gave me would be best. Ben."

"What do you want _me_ to call you?" She sees both when she looks at him. It is too simple to say that Kylo Ren is a manifestation of only darkness.

"We covered this already," he slides a glance sideways. "Master." She swats him and he catches her and tugs her into his lap. "What do you want to call me?"

"I know you as Kylo Ren," she admits. "I used to think when you let go of your darkness you would magically resume being Ben Solo, but it isn't like that. You've hidden the name Ben away. It is in you, but so is the name you chose."

She has figured out he would rather not become his prior child-self. Too much has passed to reclaim it. "I don't hate my old name, anymore, but it isn't right."

"Kylo," she leans forward and kisses him.

"Should we meet with Leia over dinner?" he asks.

Rey looks at him and considers. "When is the last time you two had a meal together?"

"It's been a while," he admits. "But she used to employ meals as a regular tool of diplomacy."

"She would recognize your request as an extension?"

"Or you could just talk to me, son," the new voice from the door prods.

Rey rises off his lap feeling a bit silly to be found this way with him. Leia waves away her concerns. "I remember what it's like to be in love, Rey."

"Mother," Kylo swallows the word as he sees her. So changed from last time they saw each other. "Thank you for coming."

"Never imagine I would have done otherwise, Ben," there is a reproof in her tone. "I was coming to call you both to supper. As Ben mentioned, I find it a useful tool for engaging."

"And he's hungry," Rey gives up her nerves and crosses to Leia and hugs her.

"I was worried about you Rey," she greets. "You look well."

The slow rise takes him to a height that is easily a head taller than both women. He cannot seem to find his balance that has always served him. He looks at his mother like he's afraid she'll disappear in a puff of smoke. Rey steps out of the room to allow them a few minutes alone.

"Are you all right?" Leia solicits.

Simple kindness from her undoes his control and he drops back down and tears he's managed to hold back stream down his cheeks. "No," he stutters. "Not all right…"

Leia moves forward and her hand hesitates just before touching his lowered head. Then she folds him close into her arms. He doesn't talk as he cries. He is glad she doesn't either. He can't process anything with so much emotion overwhelming him.

When his mind can finally do something other than make his body expel water and sadness, he notices her scent, so familiar and comforting. She's gently stroking his hair and shoulders, pressing him to her chest. It's demented to want to feel this childish manner of security again, but he knows she loves him.

"I'm so sorry," he manages to softly tell her.

"Me too," she squeezes tightly for several seconds.

"Pretty sure I…"

"Let's not get out measuring sticks for this," she suggests. "I think we both mean it."

"Thank you," he smiles and kisses her cheek.

"Stars, you're bigger than I remember," she considers.

"I left when I was a teenager. I wasn't done growing." As if he'd gone away to university, it seems such a normal greeting from long parted family.

"You did," his mother's eyes crinkle with pride. "She's amazing, isn't she?"

"Yes," he agrees, needing no help knowing who. "Did you know she was with me?"

"I wasn't sure. I knew she was having trouble. It was dangerous for her to travel on our ships. She left to keep us safe."

Ben nods. "She's been wreaking havoc on my flagship. Regularly setting off alarms when she slips. If it was anything smaller than a bulk cruiser, I'm not sure our hull would have stayed intact."

"If I could have helped her I would have. She was hoping to glean an understanding from the old Jedi books…but she didn't have the sense to admit she couldn't read them."

"You knew about that?" he shouldn't be surprised. Very little passed her unnoticed. She might refrain from comment, but she always saw.

"She grew up poor on the outskirts of the outskirts. No one looked after her. That she's done so well is a marvel."

"Yeah," he feels that about her and is pleased his mother recognizes it. "She's a little better now, but her tutor didn't jump with us when we left."

"Jump as in flee," Her mom taps the bandage on his arm.

"It's under control," he claims. "Minor insurrection. You know how those are."

"Hux?"

"And some associates. Most of them are dead…but there might be one or two who've survived."

"Why aren't you on your ship celebrating your success?"

"I'll go back after we talk," he shrugs.

"This isn't just about our personal business." She is visibly disappointed to hear he is not leaving it behind.

"Is that all right?" he didn't extend any diplomatic overtures. He called his mom and she came…and the idea that anything else…

"Why don't we talk about it over dinner," she returns to the topic they started with.

"I'd like that," he smiles and rises.

He goes to a sink and splashes water on his face. He looks like he's rode in on a tauntaun. He extends his arm and walks with her towards the large common hall. Few people have opted to stay, but there are contingents of uneasy Stormtroopers and rebel alliance in groupings. All armed and ready if someone throws down.

"Princess Leia," Maz loudly greets. "Supreme Leader Kylo Ren," she carefully balances.

"You have always called me Ben, Maz. It's no time to stop that now," he redirects her pomp.

"Thank you, Maz," Leia gracefully returns the greeting. "I gave up my title in favor of the military address, but let's consider this more of a family meal, Leia, please"

The table Maz brings them to has several people seated and waiting. Ren introduces his two officers and other members of his contingent.

"Itran Dosai of Canton Lakes region on Meribe. Sykes Benish of…well several places, but lately of Corouscant. Andros, Aaron and, Alton, from my select guard. Rey," He lets his hand lightly touch her shoulder in a small but public acknowledgement of their connection.

"Chewbacca, Commander Poe Dameron, Finn, Rose Tico," Leia names the other parties.

Ben holds out the chair for his mother before taking his own seat. They acknowledge Maz and servers pour wine for each of them.

"Ben seems like such a regular name," Poe launches into the awkward quiet.

"In honor of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi," Kylo conversationally applies himself. "Old Ben, when he met my uncle."

"Chewie says he knew you before."

Nodding to the wookie and accepting his terse greeting, he explains. "Chewie was my father's oldest and closest friend."

"Han Solo," Poe reasons. "You're Ben Solo. We all thought Kylo Ren killed you."

"It was easier for my mother to describe what happened that way than to say I'd gone over to a maniacal Sith Lord."

"I recall some collateral maniacal behavior."

"You had something I needed to collect for my master," Kylo easily says. "We were in open combat and you were captured. I did nothing permanent to you. It wasn't physical pain inflicted, it was…"

"You ordered the death of unarmed villagers. I got kicked around by your shock troops…don't make it sound like…"

"Poe," Leia seeks to lower the temperature.

"My apologies that your time in First Order custody was not what you wished," Kylo seeks to mollify the pilot, he fights the undercurrent of sarcasm that wants to show. "How did you convince FN-2187 to aid your escape?"

"I decided that on my own," Finn's color would have risen if the darker coloring didn't obscure it. "I prefer to be addressed as Finn."

"It's a good name, Finn," Ben rolls it and tips his glass. "Rose? I don't recognize you."

"You wouldn't."

"I recognize the symbol on your medallion," he tries to register something personal. "Your home world is not quite to the Rim. There are three moons that circle. It's a snowy planet but rich in minerals."

Finn looks a bit agog at the detail and Rose nods and juts her chin forward. "Sarapazian is my home world. You recall it correctly."

"You were there?" Finn has meant to sustain stiff silent grumpiness in his general direction, but this slips out.

"Once," Ben nods. "I've visited most of the settlements within the First Order's space."

"It didn't make the cut on the report you asked from us, because the outposts are so small, but it is similar to Eldener and Sossix," Benish volunteers.

"A report about our resources?" Rose presumes.

"About how your world educates it's population. Some worlds provide for it and others do not." Ben fills in.

"You wanted to know about education?"

"It's very basic, but Rey was explaining that in worlds that do not have centralized provisions for it, it becomes a matter of teachers exchanging lessons for fees. Wealthy families receive it and poor do not."

Leia nods and talks about civil missionary work to raise schooling opportunities. One of the Senates last endeavors before it was destroyed. They each end up describing their schooling experience, although Ben deftly overtakes it when it is Rey's turn. "It seemed like a place where the First Order could provide improvement for nominal investment."

"It's an investment?" Leia probes his approach.

"I can more easily allocate the tools within my council if I can frame it as such. Otherwise it becomes altruism. My war lords are prone to reject too much charity unless it accrues to them directly."

"Altruism turns their stomachs?" Poe is willing to antagonize.

"Charity creates the impression of unearned benevolence," Andros picks up the thread.

"It is recognition of a human need," Rose shakes her head.

It is Itran's turn. "Education is a necessary tool for successfully contributing to civil society. It is why many worlds mandate the processes and do not leave it to chance. For places where civil needs are not consistently met, education loses to more basic requirements. The First Order can seek to level the worlds within its control as a matter that is both benevolent and opportunistic."

"How is it opportunity to spend money educating poor children?" Rey asks.

Kylo subtly takes her hand beneath the table. He answers her but lets his voice carry to the rest of the table. "It is developing the human resource. They become the future manpower, and the better their education, the more varied and adaptable they are. A striking city or beautiful leisure planet is notable, but always beneath that are people."

"Doesn't education encourage them to question and challenge the limits imposed on them by leaders?" Leia shifts the rosy proclamation.

"And solve problems." Kylo listened to these debates at her knee and knows she does not disparage education. "They may learn, travel, challenge, and question. A ruling system that requires unquestioning loyalty is blind to its inevitable demise."

"Supreme Leader Snoke required unquestioning loyalty," Poe reminds. "And he created the First Order."

"He is also gone," Ben points out.

"Replaced by you," Poe won't relent. "It's a nice idea and all, but I saw you on Jakku."

"While I served Snoke," Ben reminds. "I do not intend to continue in that manner."

"You are a kinder First Order?"

"We're not stitching that onto the patches of our uniforms, but maybe not making war for war's sake. I'll defend our territories. I'll keep the peace. I have no great wish to sustain hostilities with the Resistance if we can reach terms." He opens the real subject of the meeting.

"A treaty?" Leia straightens at this last sentence. "We are trying to free people from the First Order."

"We have treaties with other regions. You are decentralized, but I'm willing to negotiate. You overestimate the dissatisfaction with our ruling processes."

"Why do you think this is reasonable for either of us?"

"It is a waste of capital" Kylo Ren posits. "Human and machine are thrown into conflict. Energy and resources are burned in pursuit of eradicating your operations. I could nullify the harm if I decline to engage and only man the barricades, but I might get even further if we mutually agree to cease. Your largest objections are what?"

"Pressed service, exploitation of outer world populations, and theft of resources."

Reframing as military objectives,"You mean the times when we take ground and subdue the population and restore expended materials?"

"Yes," Leia tries not to be outmaneuvered.

"I will stop expanding territories if hostilities end. I will answer any aggressive moves with proportional response."

"What of worlds that you oversee that do not wish to be under your control?"

Ben considers this carefully. "If I suddenly cast them from our boundaries it will inflict chaos and disrupt symbiotic partnerships and trading relationships."

"You will not release them?"

"Not cold turkey. We will have a period of time of oversight with a plan for referendum on self-rule at the end of five years."

"Too long," Leia presses. "Five years is eternity to live under a yoke of tyranny."

"Mother," he gently rebuffs. "I provide them civil order, organized trade and protection. Governing takes time to build coalitions, and develop the needed leadership able to make laws and oversee shared resources. Five years is not long at all to build those from whole cloth."

"They can be assisted in developing those…."

"That is outside interference, and agitation. I want them to develop _home_ rule."

"Your method seems self-serving. You would promote and support entities sympathetic to First Order priorities."

"If they have no great drive to separate from the First Order, that is a choice."

"Counseling and advice," she proxies. "Your promise not to place a thumb on the scale by displacing those who are disinclined to stay within the Order."

"Some of your counseling of late has come in the form of weapons. I cannot abide that type of action and consider it hostile."

Leia's lips get thin, but she doesn't deny his account. "Should we discuss the ways in which your operations seek to destroy us?"

"I expect it will come up," Ben tips his glass and she warms to the task.

That they are mother and son does not make them defer to one another. They hold civil exchange but carve their way across difficult lines of engagement.

"I'm not from an outside world. I don't wish to be banished to the outer worlds," Poe interjects when it would seem they are carving two distinct spheres of influence.

"Pilots," Leia shrugged. "Never satisfied to stay in one place."

It is a small recall of his father, although not cruelly done.

"I am allowing for counselors and advisors to travel within First Order territories, I can foresee that we would work towards open borders, if the peace can be sustained."

"We have nothing you want, and yet you are offering concessions."

Ben shook his head. "I am suspending open conflict on one front. Yours is not the most dangerous adversary I am actively engaged against. Lowering the enemy count allows me to reorganize. If you refuse, I will take this offer to the next party and they will accept, and the benefits will accrue to them instead of your coalition."

"We should align with your ene…" Finn tries but never manages to finish.

"If you could you would have," Ben shrewdly points out. "You have no more tolerance for Hutts or criminal syndicates than I do. Your brief attempts at coordination have been fraught and unbalanced. You would find them poor partners during an aftermath. You should be glad that I am willing and able to take care of their dehumanizing influences."

"I think you just called yourself the good guy," Finn scowls.

"You can be skeptical if you wish, Finn. Order was the Rebellion's chief failing. They destroyed the Empire and spun countless worlds into the abyss of ungoverned chaos."

"No one thought that blowing up the Death Star would come also entail the death of the Emperor. Victory caught us unprepared."

"Exactly," he reasons. "You are no more ready at this moment to take over if I stepped aside. You need the structures and organization the First Order cultivated."

Leia is wary. It is only months since Snoke's death. "Ben," she cajoles. "Are you able to truly make this bargain?"

She is questioning his control, and she should know better. "Itran, do I still control the lines of government?"

"Yes, Leader," he affirms. "The council will require restructure, but they were appointed and serve at your pleasure."

"I can, Mother," he does not ask the same back to her. The Resistance has old ties, bands of trust and reliance. They are handshakes and personal capital. Not binding agreements and treaties.

"I need to consider," she plays the classic diplomatic move.

Ben leans back in his chair. "Will two days be sufficient?" She nods and they shake hands at first and then Ben leans close and kisses her cheek.

Maz Kanata claps her hands and music issues from the band that has been quietly skulking in a corner. The food is refreshed and more drinks served. Ben looks at his mother.

"We probably should have had dinner first," his stomach is rumbling.

"Patience was never your strongest trait," his mother touches his hand.


	16. Chapter 16 - Reconciliation

A/N If you are sharp eyed you might have caught the previous chapter went up with this title at the start. Oops. It was all one chapter for a long time, but I split it when it was time to post. Thank you to those who followed, read, and reviewed. Last chapter. Have at.

Chapter 16 - Reconciliation

Kylo had secured from Maz what spaces his assemblage requires. He has extended the time to allow for the diplomatic response. He is hosting the Resistance compliment. His select guard insists the two parties not be comingled.

"I need to see them coming if I am going to have time to react," he pleaded with his leader. "If we put them in the room next to you they could get up to all manner of plotting."

"My mother won't conduct herself that way, but do what you can to keep watch on the others. If there is trouble it will come from one of them. Under no circumstance initiate hostilities."

"What if we are drinking and a disagreement arises?"

"I require discipline and restraint. We have offered a treaty and I need nothing from our side to disrupt the considerations. Convey that to our men. Take what steps you need. When we finish I'll provide for shore leave."

"Yes, Sir, but about the room assignments."

"Arrange as you propose, but ensure General Leia's rooms are the best Maz has offered."

Andros nods and seeks to act on the matters.

"I want to go see my friends." It isn't exactly a question.

He frowns but considers Rey's request. "Don't talk about the treaty with them. Make them come to me if they have questions or want clarification."

"What if they want to know secret information about the First Order?" He realizes she is tipsy.

"I suppose you could repeat what you learned during the council sessions you attended." He runs down the recent discussions. There is military information in those. "I would prefer you didn't." He doesn't ratchet up the observation to command.

Rey gives a head nodding/shaking gesture that might mean any answer. Then she hugs him and separates to go follow Andros as he directs the parties. He watches her go. She drifts so easily back to them he envies her.

Rather than dwell on her absence, he resumes work. He summons Itran and Benish and begins reviewing the information they have collected from the searches. He considers and gives directions to his two officers regarding contact with Sennec's wife and daughter. Both men are solemn as they receive this.

"You can use the shuttle to deliver the message personally."

"We would both like to go," Benish requests. Kylo isn't expecting this and his selfish impulse is keep one of them on hand. They are trained and conditioned to maintain fixed and unmoving regard in his presence but he catches the undercurrent. The death of their friend has deeply affected them. They are holding in their pain.

"Yes, both," he pivots and confirms. "Take care that the rights are covered and full honors observed. Advise me when you return if Indra or Mari require anything that I can provide. If you can see to it while you are there, do so on my authority."

"Thank you, sir."

As the door slides open at their departure the sound from the hall. He rises to investigate. His apprentice is more drunk than before. She has an arm draped over the shoulder of FN-, Finn he corrects himself. It speaks to them celebrating.

"Where are Itran and Benish going?" Rey asks as her head swivels and her knees don't respond well.

Finn props her and the familiar actions raise a coil of jealousy in Kylo's mind. "I sent them to see to Sennec."

"Oh," Rey's mood shifts on the news and she attempts to right herself but Finn holds fast. They have both been drinking liberally.

"She insisted she should come back here. I am making sure she gets to her room safely. Where is she sleeping?"

Kylo steps back allowing him access, and the man gives shakes his head. "Her own room."

"Tell him if you wish to enter my room or have one of your own, Rey," his patience grows thin.

"Finn," she rolls her eyes. "I told you. I love Kylo."

"He's manipulated your mind. He's controlling you."

"You are behaving like a jackass," she accuses and extricates herself and it is Kylo's turn to catch as her feet tangle.

 _~Steady.~_ he doesn't want the man to hear his frustration at Rey's lapse.

"It's hard," she responds verbally.

"What is hard?" Finn is suspicious. He is ready to interpret everything against the Leader. Just standing in his presence makes him sweat.

"Master Ren wants me to stand straight. Comport myself with better dignity."

"Master isn't the way you talk about someone you love," Finn provokes.

One of the MX comes striding up and doesn't unshoulder his weapon, but faces the defector. "You've shone her back. You need to leave, now."

"Rey, come back with me. You know we don't want you stuck with them." He holds out his hand and the gesture recalls his own towards her.

"I told you I'm not stuck. I am here by choice."

"Lady Rey has answered you, now return to your quarters," the soldier calmly but firmly demands.

No one has ever addressed her that way. His troops admire and respect her. He waits until the man is departing before giving a tug to remind her she was coming inside.

"Aaron called me a Lady," she seems surprised.

"He did," he smiles at the giddy reaction she's having to courtly address. "He has a crush on you. If you ever decide to be done with me, he'll pledge his eternal devotion."

"Does that mean all three brothers?"

Kylo rolls his eyes. "Their triplets, but I'm certain they have independent wishes and desires. How was your visit with your friends?" He asks.

"They were shocked to see me seated with you. They are afraid you've brainwashed me."

Kylo waits her out to hear what comes after this. It's one thing for them to raise the matter. He doesn't care if they hate him. "I told Poe to knock it off and I punched him."

His catches himself from enacting the jaw drop inspired by her statement. "Rey! I have told all of my soldiers to commit no hostilities! I didn't expect..."

"I think your diplomatic mission is unaffected."

She comes to him and lets him see the scene as she recalls it. Her arms curl around him and she lets her head press to his chest. She shifts and is recalling the moment when he told her he loves her. It is echoing in her and the vibrations of her force essence stroke like a physical touch along his skin. He presses his cheek against the top of her head and slips his own arm around her.

"I love you, Kylo," she murmurs.

"I love you, too, Rey."

Their energies wrap around each other. He kisses her and guides her to bed. It sooths the ache inside him as she answers his passion and sends her own spiraling into their expression. It is the unfathomable mystery to him how someone so far from his starting place is able to mend cracks and make him feel whole.

/&&&&&/

Kylo wakes early but allows Rey to continue sleeping. He could request that breakfast be brought to him, but he cleans, dresses and goes to a courtyard. It overlooks the lake on one side and lush jungle grows close at the other edges. His mother is seated at a table. When she acknowledges him he comes over.

The time and friction do not easily allow him to greet her. He comes forward and leans down to kiss her cheek. "Good morning mother?"

"Ben," she smiles with understanding.

"I'm sorry for Rey's conduct last evening. She…"

"Was reminding my hotheaded commander that she didn't need him to think for her. She was getting her point across in the way she needed to."

"I still expect my forces to maintain the self-control and follow orders. I didn't give those to her because she seemed the least likely to walk into your midst and cause trouble."

"They are people, son. They are uneasy."

He pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot and wonders if the second cup was arbitrary or purposefully requested. He lets the silence stretch.

"How do you two manage? Her light and your dark? I'm not trained but I sense her lightness, still."

"Luke was light and trained me and could not subdue the darkness. I showed her how to control the force, I didn't dismantle her conscience. She has passion and anger at times, but it doesn't overwhelm her. She has staked the claim that my darkness is receding and the Jedi aspects are ascendant."

"Is this peace offering part of that?"

Kylo looks at Leia and her wisdom and judgement mean a great deal to him. With Snoke's death he thought he could free himself from the wish to please elders, but the old desire looms. He has a hundred practical reasons, alongside some very specific personal reasons.

"Everything I said yesterday is true. The First Order will be served by taking you off the board as a source of conflict."

"Pragmatic and yet it puts the Resistance in a place of existential demise. We become irrelevant if we agree. This work has provided purpose and meaning for those who came to our banner."

"Additional offer," he leans back and weighs this carefully. "Some members of my senior council have recently exited their positions. I will need new voices to help direct the Order. Would you consider three members to serve in senior positions? This would allow the Resistance an ongoing voice in governing."

"A council that serves at the pleasure of the Supreme Leader," Leia reminds him. "Your body gives the appearance of consultation, but is strongly directed by you."

"It is," he acknowledges. "I break the infights, I drive them to find solutions that fit my goals. I still rely on their efforts to implement the decisions and carry out actions."

"You do not follow their advice if it contradicts your own convictions."

"True," he admits. "Do you know what happens when I disregard them?"

"They apparently try to kill you." His mother says dryly.

He waves that off dismissively. "The actions go miserably. Their indifference or hostility sabotages efforts. I find disregarding my counselors tricky business. Or have you experienced differently."

Leia is a mirror of his posture, whether purposely or inadvertently. If he ramped up the terror he might lock down and fully subjugate his officers, but he would become Snoke and never be able to trust anyone. He's seeking another path. It includes recognizing the need to allow those around him tasked with implementing rules and order to have input in the direction.

"Do you believe your Jedi traits are returning?"

"Rey does," he says. "I do not want her to be wrong. She gives me a reason to find the way."

"Do members of the Order know about your change of perspective?"

"I said it to the team that came here with me. I don't think my personal motives matter very much to them. Only how well I can bring security and prosperity to their lives. They do not want endless war."

Leia scrutinizes this statement and follows up. "Your motives and your character matter. How could I trust your offer if you did not have principles? How could they follow if you did not lead?"

"Then I am not sure how you will decide. My history does not recommend me to be trusted."

Leia refills her cup and his. "You admit that, which is helpful. I am inclined to take hope from Rey's estimation, too. She doesn't trouble herself with exhaustive history and political intrigue. She knows your heart and gave you hers."

"She has mine," he feels a blush come to his face to speak with this kind of flowery language. "She had it before I even realized."

"Love speaks to your light. It is selfless, brave, and caring. If you are in love with her, then the darkness is receding."

"Anakin loved Padme and still fell into darkness."

Leia pats his hand. "He held a jealous form of love. They hid their passions from others rather than reject the constrictions of the Jedi order. He lied and manipulated and because of that was pulled deeper into darkness. Her death killed what ability he had for compassion and kindness. He became a slave to anger and despair. He became an agent of it."

"By Rey's announcement, I am the Last Jedi. She will not take it up the title."

"She is a free spirit. She has had so few chances in her life to make choices and experience life. She is being true to herself."

Kylo Ren smiles at this assessment. He drinks his coffee and finds himself relaxed and happy to talk with his mother about a woman he loves and admires. He still owes her another day of consideration, but after a pause she follows up.

"The Resistance accepts your terms," his mother conveys as they finish. "Including the new ones about council representation."

It isn't at a negotiating table, or before a host of important people, or with guns at the ready. She extends her hand and he meets the action by reflex. He meets her eyes and realizes this meal has been a test of his patience, openness and stability. She has been closely observing all of his responses and weighing what it might mean for a future.

"I want her to be right, too," Leia reveals.

"I'm glad." He feels his mother's respect and love. "Do you have to inform anyone?"

"Everyone, I suppose. Your command ship has adequate facilities for a joint broadcast?"

"I imagine Maz's castle might be capable of providing such, also."

Maz is crossing the floor towards their table followed by a server holding a fresh tray and Rey, who is cleaned and dressed for the day. Kylo rises to seat them both and asks about the capability.

"Add it to your tab, Kiddo?" the crafty old pirate shrugs. "Sure."

Rey smiles as she realizes what the joint statement implies. "Really? Peace between the Order and the Resistance?"

"Yes, peace." He kisses her lightly then retakes his chair.

"I thought it would be more dramatic than this?" Rey looks around and it is early morning on a quiet patio with people sitting across from each other.

"I suppose we should do something formal to recognize the agreement when we inform the rest…do you require any particular pageantry or symbolism, Leia?"

"A ceremony would seem appropriate. I'm not overly impressed by symbolism, but find it does fix the moment in peoples' minds."

"My aids have been dispatched on a personal mission, but will return after tomorrow. Should we leave it until then?"

"Declare a cease-fire?"

"Done."

They allow Maz to facilitate arrangements. She spares nothing and it is extravagant and memorable. The bill that Kylo is presented with at the conclusion is exceptional. He raises an eyebrow. "What is this?"

"Some of this is from before when you wrecked the place. You owed me for the repairs."

"We'll talk about this, later," he rumbles.

"Pay it, or you are not welcome back here," she takes the hardline.

Rey sees the number and her eyes go wide. She is flabbergasted.

"Fine, I'll pay it, but I expect no more threats or recriminations next time."

"You'll be an honored guest, Leader Ren."

"I look forward to it Maz."

Rey is beside him as they take command of the shuttle and pilot it back to the command ship. It is a new day.


End file.
